Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Colin Creevey

Overview
Colin Creevey is student a year younger than Harry. Colin is obsessed with Harry in his first year, and along with Ginny Weasley, is teased about creating a Harry Potter fan club.

Chamber of Secrets
Colin, an almost intolerably chirpy child, is Sorted into Gryffindor.

On the first day of classes, Colin corners Harry, demanding a photograph as proof that he has actually met the famous Harry Potter. A small crowd, including Draco Malfoy, gathers while this was going on, and Draco immediately seizes on this, telling Gilderoy Lockhart, who is passing by, that Harry is offering signed photos. Gilderoy overpowers Harry's reluctance, and tells Colin to make it a picture of the two of them. He then drags Harry away for some "fatherly advice on handling fame". Harry is later teased about this by Hagrid.

Harry is not terribly successful in his attempts to avoid Colin over the next week, and Colin accompanies him to the first Quidditch practice of the season. Oliver Wood is initially concerned about this strange person always clicking away with his camera while they are practicing, but soon has larger problems: the Slytherin team arrive, claiming that they have been granted use of the pitch by Professor Snape, to allow them to train their new Seeker, Draco Malfoy. When Ron curses Draco with his broken wand, is hit by the curse backfire, and starts vomiting slugs, Colin has to be restrained from taking pictures of him in his distress.

Passing Harry in the hall, Colin mentions that someone had said Harry was the heir of Slytherin, the one apparently responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets.

When Harry is struck by an enchanted Bludger during the Quidditch game against Slytherin, a mistaken spell by Professor Lockhart removes all the bones in his arm, sending him to the Hospital Wing overnight. While he is there, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bring in Colin, who has been Petrified. They surmise from the bunch of grapes he had been carrying that he was on his way to the Infirmary to visit someone, probably Harry, and as he was holding his camera before his face, they believe he was trying to take a picture of something. Opening the back of his camera to see what he had been trying to photograph, Dumbledore releases a cloud of burned-plastic smoke.

The news of Colin's Petrification apparently quite upsets Ginny. We do not yet know quite why.

Once Harry and Ron determine that the monster in the Chamber is a Basilisk, they also realize that every person attacked was Petrified, rather than killed, because they did not see the monster directly. In Colin's case, he was looking through his camera, and saw the Basilisk through his camera lens (and presumably mirror, assuming a single-lens reflex camera).

At the end of the story, Colin is re-animated, as are the rest of the Petrified students.

Prisoner of Azakban
When Harry enters the Gryffindor Common Room during the first Hogsmeade weekend, he sees several younger and older students sitting around, including Colin. When Colin asks Harry if he wants to join him and his friends, Harry leaves the Common Room, not in the mood to have people look at his scar. Other than that, Colin doesn't appear in the book except in crowd scenes.

Goblet of Fire
Colin very excitedly tells Harry that his brother Dennis is starting at Hogwarts. Dennis is Sorted into Gryffindor, and Colin points out the famous Harry Potter to him.

Colin is the messenger who summons Harry to the Weighing of the Wands ceremony before the First Task. His prattle of photo opportunities and the associated fame quite sours Professor Snape, whose class Harry is being summoned from. As Harry and Colin proceed to the designated classroom, Colin goes on about how it must be nice to be so famous, not heeding Harry's weariness at the prospect.

Draco Malfoy has started distributing buttons that say "Support Cedric Diggory, the True Hogwarts Champion", and when pressed, change to say "Potter Stinks". Colin, with his brother Dennis, are seen at one point trying to Charm one of these badges, but are unsuccessful; when Harry returns to the Common Room that night, they have given up and left the badge on the table. The badge now reads "Potter Really Stinks", and when Ron interrupts Harry's conversation with Sirius Black, Harry throws it at him in anger.

Order of the Phoenix
Colin is one of the students who attends the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army. We are led to understand that he attends further meetings, and makes much progress with the spells that Harry teaches, but he does not play a very large part in this book.

Deathly Hallows
Colin, seen in the Great Hall, is told to evacuate the school with the other underage wizards, but apparently somehow makes his way back to the school. He is killed by Death Eaters in the final Battle of Hogwarts; in the quiet time after Harry has seen Snape killed, Harry sees Oliver Wood and Neville Longbottom bringing Colin's body in from the grounds.

Strengths
Colin's main strength is his unremitting cheerfulness. While this can be annoying to those around him, like Harry, it results in him being willing to take on almost any challenge.

Weaknesses
While his cheerfulness does make him willing to take on many challenges, the fact is that much of what he tries to do is beyond his ability. We see this in his attempt to change what the Potter Stinks button says, and quite possibly it is what leads to his death.

Relationships with Other Characters
Colin almost worships Harry, and is amazed that he has been Sorted into the same House as the famous Harry Potter.

His perpetual gung-ho enthusiasm seems to keep many others at a distance; we certainly never seem to see him spending time outside class with any other students, apart from his brother Dennis.

Analysis
Colin is a rather interesting mix of Muggle and Wizarding attributes. Clearly, he has not been raised among Wizards, because like Harry he is totally unfamiliar with the ways of magic; he has never before seen Wizarding photos, and is quite obviously amazed to learn that if he uses the correct potion as a developer, the resulting photos will move. However, he also hero-worships Harry, who is a celebrity only among Wizards, and it seems he feels his parents do the same, as he says he wants a signed photo for them. Additionally, there is Dennis, who is also a Wizard; how likely is it that two Wizards can spring from one set of Muggle roots? We have no way of judging.

In part because of this, Colin and Dennis' Blood status was never entirely clear. On the one side, some commentators have suggested that the Basilisk attack on Colin was evidence of his Muggle origin, though it may be questioned exactly how much control over the Basilisk the Heir actually has at that point. On the other side of the question, the fact that Colin was at Hogwarts during the final battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Hogwarts has been closed to all except those who can claim Blood status, is seen as evidence that Colin is able to prove that he has Wizarding ancestry.

The author has stated, since publication, that Colin and Dennis are, in fact, Muggle-born, and did not attend Hogwarts during Harry's seventh year. In an online question and answer session on July 30th 2007, she said that Colin had returned to the school along with the other exiled and graduate members of Dumbledore's Army, when Neville summoned them, and joined them all in the Great Hall where they gathered to prepare for the coming battle. There, McGonagall ordered him to leave, which he did, though presumably not actually getting as far as the Room of Requirement. He then sneaked back in to join the battle, as a true Gryffindor would, and died.

Questions

 * 1) Why do you think Colin Creevey is so obsessed with Harry?