Nearly Headless Nick

"I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years. I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower." - Nick when he first meet Harry and the Gryffindors in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.

Nicholas de Minsy-Porpington ,also known as Nearly Headless Nick is the house ghost of Gryffindor. He attended Hogwarts himself and got sorted into Gryffindor. He was exucuted in 1492 because he met Lady Grieve while strolling in the park on the evening of 30 october 1492. He was certain he could straighten her crooked teeth, but his attempt to do so backfired, causing her to grow a tusk. A priest came to Sir Nicholas's cell to comfort him and escort him to the execution site at dawn the following day. He became a "gibbering wreck" when the executioner told him to kneel before the block. However, the executioner's axe was blunt, as the grindstone used to sharpen it had been misplaced. Thus, it took forty-five hacks to kill Sir Nicholas and even then his head was only partially severed. Naturally, these acts of betrayal and idiocy alone were not enough to condemn Sir Nicolas to such a brutal death, but the rampant acts of previous juvenile encounters led to an unsympathetic public.In 1992 Sir Nicholas tried to join for the Headless hunt, although his application was denied by Sir-Patrick Delaney-Podmore who only accepted huntsmen "whose heads have parted company with their bodies.

In the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. and Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets ,Nearly Headless Nick is played by John Cleese.