Get a bunch of kids in a confined space and you can pretty much guarantee that an infestation of lice will follow. It happens in daycares, it happens in schools, it happens in sports teams, and it turns out that it also happened in Harry Potter.
In what is one of the least glamorous stories of modern filmmaking, it transpires that filming on movie number two, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was actually stopped for “a few days” in order to deal with a lice outbreak among the young cast members.
And we don’t know who brought their filthy parasites onto the set, but let’s be honest: it was probably Neville.
And we don’t want to know how much scratching was going on to force the shutting down of a multi-million dollar movie production, but we assume it’s a lot.
Fun bonus fact: if you’re reading this and unconsciously scratching your head then don’t fear. It’s a perfectly normal human reaction and it even has a hilarious name: formication, meaning the feeling of having insects crawling on (or under) your skin. It’s from the the same root as formicidae, which is the insect family that contains ants, and thus much less rude and more anty than you’d assume.
And while lice is pretty ewww-inducing (although it doesn’t really have any health effects beyond being itchy), it’s also a reminder that these were really just a bunch of kids.
Speaking of which, and in slightly less parasite-related C of S trivia, apparently both Daniel Radcliffe’s and Rupert Grint’s voices broke during the filming. Awww!