First think of the person who lives in disguise,
who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
The middle of middle and end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?

Although in the book the Sphinx lets Harry pass when he gives spider as an answer, I have always favored an alternate answer. It's based mostly on the last line, which is 'which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?' In the Harry Potter world, dementors "kiss" their victims to suck out their soul. Also, Harry's Boggart (which shows his worst fear) is a dementor.

In this respect, the first part would be 'demon', the second part 'd', and the third part 'er'.

DEMON + D + ER is close to and roughly sounds like demender, which (in the fifth book) is how Uncle Vernon mispronounces dementor.

:-) Food for thought, and it seems to match the HP canon.

Posted by Lillian on 2007-07-11 17:14:30