Fun Fact: Was the Name of a Minor Harry Potter Character Inspired by a Relative of Mine?

Let me start off by saying that I haven't read the Harry Potter books. It's not that I didn't want to, but when I was sent a copy of the first book for Christmas back in 1997, before it became famous, I found the first few chapters oddly boring and dragged out. I'm sure the reason was that I was still a child and was more interested in the world I had created through my drawings and stories (I didn't own a TV, you see...) than someone else's.

Plus, it had only been about four years since I had discovered "Star Wars and, if you are a Star Wars fan, you know what those first few years felt like.

My first experience with the movies was traumatic: it was Boxing Day 2001, "Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone" had been out in Italy for a mere twenty days and the cinema was packed. Add to that the fact that the listings had a typo and everyone had shown up late, therefore making that day's second showing especially packed, the fact that I was sitting behind a really tall guy and in front of two hysterical, thirty or forty-something harpies who kicked the back of my chair for the whole duration of the film and you get the picture - no pun intended.

It wasn't until I became very close with a massive Harry Potter fan a few years later, after the final Lord of the Rings film had been released, that I finally decided to give that saga another chance: no one I knew - English or otherwise - was enthusiastic about J.K. Rowling's writing, so I decided to give the films a go.

I bought the DVDs of the ones that had already been released (the first four, if I remember correctly) and watched one every night until I was done.

Guess what: I loved them.

Shortly before then, I visited my great uncle and aunt in Aberfeldy, Scotland. I had never been to their house before and soon after I arrived they told me their neighbour was J.K. Rowling and even took me round to see her house. At the time I didn't make much of it, given that I was not a fan, but the purpose of this overly long and annoying introduction is to explain my surprise when I went to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I" and discovered that the Minister for Magic's was called Rufus Scrimgeour (in the film he is portrayed by an uncharacteristically stern Bill Nighy).

Since my relatives often met J.K. Rowling while on their daily walks and lived right next to her while she was writing the second half of the saga, I wonder whether they were her inspiration for this particular character's surname. I guess we'll never know...