Nearly Headless Nick is the Gryffindor ghost whose neck was almost completely severed in life (45 swings to the neck with a blunt axe), but not enough to join in the games of the Headless Hunt, a society of ghosts who had been decapitated on earth (a source of annual vexation to the ghost). Harry Potter becomes friends with Sir Nicholas when he attends his "deathday" party (the 500th anniversary of the event) in a Hogwarts dungeon.