25 points for Fleur Delacour

‘Miss Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by Grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points.’
Applause from the stands.
‘I deserved zero,’ said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

During the Second Task at the Triwizard Tournament, each Champion was put through their paces in myriad ways. Tasked to explore the depths of Hogwarts’ Great Lake and rescue someone near & dear to them, Harry, Fleur, Viktor and Cedric were not just being tested on their magical acumen this time - but also challenging them on an emotional scale.

This led to sheer chaos, with Harry taking the Merpeoples’ song too seriously and trying to rescue all of the hostages while poor Fleur Delacour was attacked by Grindylows on her way to trying to reach her sister in a state of panic. And we haven’t even mentioned Viktor’s weirdly Transfigured shark head.

In the end, Fleur was left visibly distraught, and Harry was gifted 45 points for showcasing ‘moral fibre’, although Ron assessed him as ‘being thick’.

Bit of a mad thing to put a bunch of teenagers through, to be perfectly honest...

25 Dementor essays

‘Before we start, I want your Dementor essays,’ said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. ‘And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse.’
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts, his surly Potions Professor Severus Snape finally got his wish... to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Not that anyone was particularly happy about that.

During Snape’s occupancy, Harry’s class were treated to many essays (which means their class must’ve been 25-strong) brusque back-and-forths in the classroom (never forget the ‘ghosts are transparent’ moment) and many, many points from Gryffindor.

And they thought Lockhart’s Cornish Pixie attack was bad.

25 Butterbeers

‘Hi,’ said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companions quickly, ‘could we have … twenty-five Butterbeers, please?’
The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty Butterbeers from under the bar.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Now we’re talking. In the forming of Dumbledore’s Army, it would appear there must’ve been 25 members of the secret Hogwarts resistance group, noted by Fred’s drinks order at the Hog’s Head. As you can see, the barman was clearly not used to such booming business at his establishment and took the order of 25 Butterbeers with great disdain rather than...say, joy at actually encountering paying customers.

Educational Decree Number 25

‘Hem, hem … “Educational Decree Number Twenty-five”.’
‘Not another one!’ exclaimed Professor McGonagall violently. ‘Well, yes,’ said Umbridge, still smiling. ‘As a matter of fact, Minerva, it was you who made me see that we needed a further amendment … you remember how you overrode me, when I was unwilling to allow the Gryffindor Quidditch team to re-form? How you took the case to Dumbledore, who insisted that the team be allowed to play? Well, now, I couldn’t have that...’
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Ah, the ‘hem hem’ of despair.

So tyrannous was Umbridge’s tenure at Hogwarts, that the evil woman got addicted to creating ‘Educational Decrees’, ie: obnoxious little notices that allowed her to create extra school rules.

We encountered several of these during the events of Harry’s fifth year, and Educational Decree Number 25 was particularly irritating. After getting blocked by other staff members on other Educational Decrees, Umbridge literally instated an Educational Decree meaning everyone had to listen to her Educational Decrees.

No.25 meant that “The High Inquisitor will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments” alongside the power to alter other punishments placed by her colleagues... essentially a passive-aggressive way for Umbridge to rule the school without any intervention. No wonder people argue that she was a worse villain than Voldemort.

25 foot giants

‘Found ’em,’ said Hagrid baldly. ‘Went over a ridge one nigh’ an’ there they was, spread ou’ underneath us. Little fires burnin’ below an’ huge shadows … it was like watchin’ bits o’ the mountain movin’.’

‘How big are they?’ asked Ron in a hushed voice.

‘’Bout twenty feet,’ said Hagrid casually. ‘Some o’ the bigger ones mighta bin twenty-five.’
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

After going mysteriously missing for about half of the fifth book, we readers were shocked to learn that our beloved Hagrid had been off-the-page due to a secret mission from Professor Dumbledore, seeking out... giants.

We hadn’t known much about these elusive magical beings during the course of the stories thus far, although of course we had already learnt that Hagrid was half-giant at this point.

Roaming the mountains of Europe (Hagrid didn’t divulge exactly where the giants were, but did have a ‘slight disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk’ to give us a rough idea of his journey) Hagrid eventually discovered their whereabouts, divulging just how tall a grown giant actually is – roughly averaging at 20 to 25-feet. That’s about the width of four cars. So yeah, if you ever need to reach a particularly high shelf in the supermarket, these fellows might be able to help you out.

‘25 Ways to Mingle with Muggles’’

‘I’m guessing your father runs some stupid little village newsletter?’ she said. ‘Probably, Twenty-five Ways to Mingle WithMuggles and the dates of the next Bring and Fly Sale?’

‘No,’ said Luna, dipping her onion back into her Gillywater, ‘he’s the editor of The Quibbler.’

Rita snorted so loudly that people at a nearby table looked round in alarm.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The final instance of ‘25’ we found in the Harry Potter books is used in jest by a particularly acid-tongued Rita Skeeter, while finding herself unwittingly embroiled in a plan for Harry to try and tell the wizarding world the truth about Lord Voldemort. After Harry is accused of lying about the Dark Lord’s ascent, Hermione, with the help of lovely Luna, devises a plan to get Harry’s story out there, with the knowledge that the most mainstream wizarding newspaper, The Daily Prophet, had been compromised.

Instead, Harry and co. turned to the slightly-less-respected Quibbler for help, with journalist Rita Skeeter (not at liberty to argue, due to Hermione threatening to out her as an unregistered Animagi...) to conduct an interview with Harry about the terrible night of Lord Voldemort’s return. The plan worked, but not before Rita took a few swipes at The Quibbler’s idiosyncratic editorial style. 25 Ways to Mingle with Muggles sounds lovely, though! We wouldn’t mind reading that.

Happy 2025, everybody! Have 25 Butterbeers on us - and try not to run into any 25-foot giants along the way.