Halloween Countdown: 7 characters we'd have liked to meet

Harry Potter has its headliners. We can always expect to learn more about Hagrid or his magical creatures and Severus Snape will crop up when Slytherin priorities are at stake. On the other hand, there are characters who appear so briefly they only stand out for a specific element.

1. Doris Crockford

Seen in the Leaky Cauldron, this star-struck witch is mentioned when Harry is introduced to the bar's patrons and is welcomed by one and all. She is so excited to have met him that she keeps coming back to shake his hand again and again. She is mentioned as the last person Harry gives his attention, but we don't know why she says she's excited to meet him "at last." We don't know if her return for more handshakes is a nervous tic or something related to her backstory. We don't, in fact, know what her backstory is, but it would be nice to hear a bit about this enthusiastic woman.

2. Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle

In the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry sees Ron's bedroom for the first time. Most of the room is covered with Chudley Cannons paraphernalia, but Harry notices a pile of comic books featuring this character. We don't know anything about this character. For all we know, this is like a teenager having an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man on their bookshelf. Maybe it's a terribly offensive caricature of Muggles. We have no way of knowing.

3. Colonel Fubster

Aunt Marge doesn't seem to have very many friends and we're meant to think that as a natural byproduct of her unpleasant character. She is surrounded by dogs and speaks almost exclusively about them in her short visit to Number Four, Pirvet Drive. She does mention Colonel Fubster. The man has to have some dedication and integrity to hold military office and is reliable, but there are only two things we know about him. First, he looks after eleven dogs that are not his own as a favor to Marge Dursley. Also, he drowned one of her dogs in the past. She approves of him, but that doesn't mean that he is as vicious as she and we don't get to learn if he is a neighbor or a friend.

4. The Hufflepuff who asked Harry to the Yule Ball

In "The Unexpected Task," Harry is caught off-guard by the invitation extended by a "curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken." We know that "he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter" and it describes her hurt expression.. We don't even know her name, but I have the hope that Harry showed her some kindness in later years or at least spoke to her more than once. Perhaps she was one of the Muggle-borns who didn't get to come to Hogwarts for her sixth year. Maybe she was pulled out of school by her parents. It all remains a mystery.

5. Mark Evans

When the fifth book first came out, eagle-eyed readers wondered if there was a significance to Mark sharing the maiden name of Lily Potter and Petunia Dursley, but J.K. Rowling confirmed that there was no connection. It is a fact, however, that Dudley Dursley and his gang turned over the years from Harry Hunting to beating children in the neighborhood. He's mentioned as being ten years old, which means that he would have little memory of the Potter boy who was Dudley's prior target. We don't know why Dudley targeted him or how many other children are victims of "Big D" and his more efficient brutality.

6. The Montgomery sisters

In the chapter where Harry finally retrieve's Slughorn's altered memory, Ron notices a couple of girls in the courtyard. "Blimey, they don't look happy, do they?" he asks. They are old enough to attend Hogwarts together, but their five-year-old brother was attacked in retaliation for their mother refusing to helpt the Death Eaters. He died as a result of Fenrir or one of his followers getting "carried away." Hermione is understandably distressed by this savagery and presents the tale to Harry as a reminder that Voldemort has to be stopped.

7. The Muggles in Gadley

Year 7 introduced us to Potterwatch, the underground radio program that spread the good word of resistance on the wireless. We expect that the program we hear only once follows an agenda and so it is a grim thign that they report casualties in the ongoing war against Voldemort. Lee Jordan reports that five members of a Muggle family in Gadley were murdered and presents it as "more evidence...of the fact that Muggle slaughter is becoming little more than a recreational sport under the new regime." These might be indiscriminate killings, but there's a chance that they knew wizards or were associated with witches. It's also possible that they were killed as a crime of opportunity and that is "no less regretted."

Who are the people in the books you'd like to know more about?