Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Crumple Horned Snorkack

Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Magic
Crumple Horned Snorkack
Type	Magical Creature
Features	large horn; tiny purple ears
First Appearance	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Overview

The Crumple-Horned Snorkack is mentioned in passing, but never described in detail.

Extended Description

Luna Lovegood mentions the Crumple-Horned Snorkack a number of times in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; apparently, her father, the publisher of The Quibbler, believes in the existence of this and other magical creatures that nobody else has ever seen. This is a sore point for Hermione, who will not believe in their existence without seeing some proof.

At the end of the book, Luna says that some of the money her father has received for the right to publish Harry's interview about the return of Voldemort will be spent on an expedition to find the Snorkack, an expedition that we later find out is fruitless.

The Snorkack is mentioned again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry visits Luna's father, Xenophilius. Apparently, Xeno has purchased what he thinks is a Snorkack horn, to give to Luna for Christmas; in fact, it is an Erumpent horn, which explodes, nearly destroying Xeno's house.

Later in the book, when Luna and Dean Thomas, among others, have been rescued from Malfoy Manor, we overhear Luna describing the Snorkack to Dean. The only description we hear, though, is that it has tiny, purple ears.

Analysis

The major reason for introducing the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, one must suppose, is to show Luna Lovegood's mild strangeness; her insistence that this creature exists is a harmless form of insanity and is therefore seen as laughable rather than dangerous. Her steadfast holding to this belief is another part of the limning of her character; Luna, though believing things that just aren't so (according to accepted wizard lore) holds steadfastly to her beliefs, to her father's beliefs, and similarly to her friends.

Questions

1. Presumably, the Crumple Horned Snorkack has at least one crumpled horn. What do you think it looks like? What characteristics would it have?
2. Luna's father says that they will be hunting for it in Sweden; can you think of characteristics that would make it more likely to be there than, say, Florida?