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It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyption wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.

Harry potter and the prisonr of Azkaban

"break in" means to enter a place to steal or to interrupt, but I'm not sure if these definitions are correct here.

Does that phrase literally mean "Muggles broke into the tombs"? Then what does "they had grown extra heads and stuff" mean?

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It's magic, right? So the grave robbers (the Muggles) who broke into the tombs were cursed in various ways, like growing extra heads (and stuff), as evidenced by the "mutant skeletons".

In the world of Harry Potter, weird things probably mean just what they say.

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  • Does "extra heads and stuff" mean the Muggles got another heads and also other things? So the Muggles broke into the tombs when they were alive, and then cursed or died instanly so that they became mutant skeletons, am I understanding right?
    – dbwlsld
    Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 11:55
  • And in "of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff", if the subjective is "the Muggles", doesn't it have to be like "whose" heads had grown, not "who" had grown? "Muggles who'd grown extra heads" seems like the Muggles themselves intentionally grow extra heads. . .(?)
    – dbwlsld
    Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 12:06
  • @dbwlsld It means what it says. Yes, the Muggles grew extra heads or something like that. It's not entirely clear what was done to them. You have to use your imagination. Also recall this is one child (Ron) writing to another (Harry), so the grammar is somewhat relaxed. Since he'd already spoken about "curses" it's clear from context that the extra heads were due to some external effect.
    – Andrew
    Commented Jan 12, 2018 at 16:19

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