Mumbai Police shared this image of Neville Longbottom. (courtesy: MumbaiPolice)

New Delhi:

Long before Neville Longbottom was a worthy Gryffindor, who chopped off Lord Voldemort’s most lethal Horcrux (read Nagini), he was a shy and an extremely forgetful kid. You may or may not be a Potterhead but there must have been times when you turned forgetful like Neville Longbottom and guess who used that opportunity to spread spells of safety? The Mumbai Police, of course. On Tuesday, Mumbai Police shared a still of Neville Longbottom from the 2001 film Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone. In the meme, Neville can be seen holding a Remembrall which was sent to him by his granny. For the uninitiated, it was a marble-sized ball containing smoke, which turned red when its owner had forgotten something (a common problem Neville faced). The text on the meme read, “The thing is, I can’t remember what I’ve forgotten.” The caption on Mumbai Police’s post read, “Your mask Neville, you have forgotten your mask.”

Mumbai Police decided to remind people of wearing a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic. They added a couple of hashtags to the post, which were #RemembrallReminders, #WearYourMask and #SpellsOfSafety. Check out the post here:

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by Warner Bros, was based on JK Rowling’s famous 1997 novel Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. The first installment of the super popular Harry Potter series, made stars of its principle characters Harry Potter ( Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley ( Rupert Grint), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), among many others. The final part of the series released on released in July 2011.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police’s social media handle frequently makes pop culture references in their posts. From The Batman, to F.R.I.E.N.D.S and even Indian classics like Andaz Apna Apna, memes based on many films and shows are used to spread awareness about maintaining social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising on regular intervals.