"I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule. However--" 
     -- Nearly Headless Nick

Nearly Headless Nick is the nickname of the ghost of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, who died in a botched execution on October 31, 1492 (CS8). He was hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe, but a half-inch of skin and sinew remained connecting his head to the rest of his body. Nick wears a doublet, a dashing plumed hat, and a tunic with a ruff to hide the fact that his head is nearly severed. He is the resident ghost of Gryffindor House and is always helpful to Gryffindor students. Once he even convinced Peeves to destroy a very valuable Vanishing Chest over Filch's office to divert the caretaker's attention from Harry, who had dripped mud on the floor in the corridor (CS.

On October 31, 1992, Nick held a Deathday Party in one of the roomier dungeons. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attended the event. The Headless Hunt, a social club of ghosts who have been beheaded, showed up and more or less took over the party, much to Nick's chagrin. He had been rejected for membership in the Hunt by its leader, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.

On December 18, 1992, Nick was Petrified by the gaze of a Basilisk, the creature from the Chamber of Secrets. He remained Petrified, which for a ghost means that he was the color of smoke and completely immobilized, for several months until May 30, 1993.

Nick occasionally entertains at Hogwarts banquets by reenacting his own botched beheading (e.g. at the Halloween Feast, October 31, 1993). (PA