For all you so called Orthodox who worship Harry Potter, and say none of it is real, why don't you take a look at what the author herself says...
DR: Is there a certain amount of very sophisticated mythology that you're trying to work in here?
JKR: There's - I'm not trying to work it in, but... If you're writing a book that, I mean, I do do a certain amount of research, and folklore is quite important in the books, so where I'm mentioning a creature or a spell, that people used to believe genuinely worked - of course it didn't - but, you know, it's still a very picturesque and a very comical world in some ways - then I will find out exactly what the words were, and I will find out exactly what the characteristics of that creature or ghost was supposed to be. But I hope that that appears seamlessly. Children often, often ask me how much of the magic is in inverted commas "real" in the books in the sense that did anyone ever believe in this? I would say - a rough proportion - about a third of the stuff that crops up is stuff that people genuinely used to believe in Britain. Two thirds of it, though, is my invention.
And here is the audio if you do not believe the words here..
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/99/10/r1991020-13962.ram
From this webpage..
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/99/10/20.php#13962
DR: Is there a certain amount of very sophisticated mythology that you're trying to work in here?
JKR: There's - I'm not trying to work it in, but... If you're writing a book that, I mean, I do do a certain amount of research, and folklore is quite important in the books, so where I'm mentioning a creature or a spell, that people used to believe genuinely worked - of course it didn't - but, you know, it's still a very picturesque and a very comical world in some ways - then I will find out exactly what the words were, and I will find out exactly what the characteristics of that creature or ghost was supposed to be. But I hope that that appears seamlessly. Children often, often ask me how much of the magic is in inverted commas "real" in the books in the sense that did anyone ever believe in this? I would say - a rough proportion - about a third of the stuff that crops up is stuff that people genuinely used to believe in Britain. Two thirds of it, though, is my invention.
And here is the audio if you do not believe the words here..
http://wamu.org/audio/dr/99/10/r1991020-13962.ram
From this webpage..
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/99/10/20.php#13962