"Even in Defense Against the Dark Arts, students are required to learn
a little history." Professor Ready wasn't all that thrilled to not get to
let the class swim with the grindylows in the lake (it froze over). "Today,
then, I will read to you the story of Ann Hoolig.
"Gophers have often been depicted as pesky beasts that eat away at your crops.
This could partially be because there was once a giant beast, the hoglopins,
which would eat away an entire cornfield in a few weeks. Standing ten feet
tall, hoglopins were identical to gophers (exceptions only include its massive
size, and to saber-like teeth). One day, brave farmer named Anne Hoolig stepped
outside her house, and turned the beast and all its kin into miniature, foot
tall rodents with teeth only long enough to gnaw away a cabbage patch.
"Unfortunately for Anne, a nearby mortal saw her, and accused
her for witchcraft. Despite saving many crops from death, Anne Hoolig was
hung at the gallows. When the Ministry of Magic caught wind of this brave
witch’s acts, they wanted to reward her. But they got there too late. Desperately
looking for the death certificate, the Minister of Magic misread it as “Hollig,
Anne.” So, from Anne Hoolig we get the term “hooligan;” because she was an
unwise witch who allowed muggles to know of her powers.