Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Veela

Overview
Veela, who are the team mascots of the Bulgarian National Quidditch team in the Quidditch World Cup, take the form of inhumanly beautiful and infinitely desireable women.

Extended Description
The Veela seem to have the ability to change between two states. In their normal state, they appear to be women, with skin that "shines moon-bright" and white-gold hair that "fans out behind them without wind". They are incredibly beautiful, though inhumanly so, but when they dance, that apparent inhumanity no longer matters. Like the legendary Sirens, Veela music and dance has the power to cloud men's minds and make them want to do insane and self-destructive things in order to secure the notice of these desirable creatures.

When they get angry, though, they change into beings with heads like birds, with sharp, cruel, beaks and scaly wings, and apparently have the ability to throw fireballs. "And that is why you should never go for looks alone," as Mr. Weasley comments.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Fleur Delacour's wand has, as its active magical core, the hair of a Veela. Fleur says that it is from her grandmother, which tells us both that Veela and humans can interbreed, and that Ron's earlier guess that there was some Veela in Fleur's background is correct.

Analysis


Veela are mentioned also in the Muggle mythos. There, they are shapeshifters, though most alluring in their human form. Predominantly women, though there are some males, they are rather mischievous creatures. They enjoy luring men away from their homes or away from their journeys, and dancing or singing so that the men are compelled to join them. Men so entranced end up being led into fairy rings and forced to dance until they die or one of their friends pulls them out. We note that this magical luring effect is referred to in archaic texts with the fine old word "glamour," and have used the same term in this text in places where it seems appropriate.

We do see quite a few males so entranced in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, though none of them are convinced to dance until they die; we do note that Ron and Harry almost jump from the Top Box at the Quidditch World Championship, that the referee at that match abandons his job, and that Ron almost volunteers to fly a broomstick to the moon shortly afterwards. It is interesting that Ron is more susceptible than Harry. Perhaps Harry's resistance to the Imperius curse is somehow related to his lack of susceptibility to the Veela glamour.