Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a Scottish institution that teaches young British witches and wizards the art of magic.
Hogwarts is a large seven-storey castle supported by magic, with many towers and underground dungeons. The castle was built by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
Externally, the castle resembles those mentioned in fairy tales. The main common rooms are :
The Great Hall,
The common rooms of each house,
Classrooms,
The teachers’ offices, Rusard’s office, and the headmaster’s office,
The library,
Several toilets (including those of Myrtle Warren)
The bathrooms (including that of the Prefects).
A multitude of secondary areas are also present:
The infirmary,
The corridors,
The 142 magic stairs,
The kitchens,
The Chamber of Secrets, located in the depths of the castle
The Room of Requirements,
The owlery,
The dungeons,
The trophy room,
Several secret passages,
Several broom cupboards.
Hogwarts is located in the north of the United Kingdom, in Scotland. The location is described as mountainous and near to a lake known as ‘The Black Lake’. The school is also located not far from Hogsmead, a village inhabited exclusively by wizards.
Hogwarts castle is unplottable, thus it never appears on a map.
First-year students are taken to the castle by boat with the gatekeeper, while the other students go there in carriages pulled by Thestrals. They travel up a long road around the lake, ending in front of Hogwarts gate.
There are also eight secret passageways leading out of Hogwarts, seven of which are visible from the Marauder’s Map. The last one was built in 1998 in the Room of Requirements.
In the castle, we find:
A passage hidden behind a mirror on the fourth floor made impassable by a landslide.
A passage is hidden under the statue of a one-eyed witch and which leads to the Honeydukes store in Hogsmead.
A passage in the Room of Requirements leading to Hog’s Head, an inn in Hogsmead.
In the park of the castle, we find a passage under the Whomping Willow leading to the Shrieking Shack.
The castle is invisible to the Muggles as it is protected by many enchantments. Indeed, if a Muggle approaches Hogwarts, he will only see ruins and will continue on his way. It is also protected from the Dark forces. It is, for example, impossible for a wizard to Apparate in or out of Hogwarts’ grounds.
Security measures were reinforced in 1996 after the announcement of Voldemort’s official return. But these did not prevent Death Eaters from entering the school grounds because there was a loophole in the system: the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room on Requirements had a twin at Borgin and Burkes which was used by Draco Malfoy and led to the death of the headmaster then, Albus Dumbledore.
Middle Ages
Hogwarts College was built in the 10th century when wizards were still suffering persecution from the Muggles. The four greatest sorcerers of the time, long-time friends, decided to unite to create a place of fulfillment, a place of learning that could also serve as a refuge for sorcerers.
Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin built their own school of witchcraft and wizardry, which they named “Hogwarts”, and soon set out to find sorcerers with the necessary skills to teach magic to their future students.
But the first divergences started manifesting. Differences of opinion regarding the choice of students and the subjects taught multiplied, and the school was divided into four separate houses. Each house took the name of its founder. The four founders, whose days were numbered, had the idea of giving a bewitched hat, which belonged to Godric Griffindor, the power to distribute each new pupil in the house corresponding to their personality and aspirations.
Despite this, tensions were growing. Salazar Slytherin categorically refused the admission of Muggle-borns, people who, according to him, are not worthy of studying magic. On the other hand, the other three founders opposed him and insisted that all witches and wizards should be allowed to join the school.
Slytherin finally left the castle after a lost duel against Griffindor. Even today, the tensions between the houses, especially between Gryffindor’s and Slytherin’s students, are still as strong as ever.
1927
In 1927, Torquil Travers, then Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for the British Ministry of Magic, visited Hogwarts to ask Dumbledore to join the ministry in the war against Gellert Grindelwald, unsuccessfully. This was around the period when Gellert was gathering supporters.
1942 -1943
The existence of the school is threatened twice because of the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. The first time it was opened was in 1942, when Tom Riddle, heir to Salazar Slytherin and the man who would become Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber of Secrets in his fifth year. When a student named Myrtle Warren died, the Ministry of Magic threatened to close the school. While Tom spends his time in a Muggle orphanage when he is not at Hogwarts, he does not want the school closed. He then frames Rubeus Hagrid to be tried for Myrtle’s dead.
1991 – 1992 (Harry Potter’s first school year)
The Philosopher’s Stone
In 1991, Harry Potter made his first steps in Hogwarts. Already popular for being the one who defeated Voldemort as an infant, he soon begins to search for the secrets of the Philosopher’s Stone that has been hidden in the school. Harry discovers that the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Quirinus Quirrell, was used by Voldemort. The Dark Lord wanted the stone in order to recover his body and give himself eternal life.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione suffered a series of delicate situations in the underground chambers in order to prevent the stone from being stolen by Severus Snape, whom they believed to be the thief when in reality it was Quirrell. Harry found Quirrell in the underground chamber hiding the stone, which he managed to defeat and, at the same time, prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
1992 – 1993 (Harry Potter’s second school year)
Reopening of the Chamber of Secrets
In 1992, the Chamber of Secrets was reopened by Ginny Weasley, under the influence of a book written by none other than Tom Riddle. The book allows a piece of Tom’s soul to possess Ginny, who then opened the Chamber a second time. Lucius Malfoy had placed the book in her cauldron among her school books, unaware that it was a Horcrux.
His goal was to ruin the reputation of Albus Dumbledore and Arthur Weasley, two great men who are in favor of protecting the Muggles. However, Harry Potter discovers the truth and destroys the book as well as the Chamber’s monster, a Basilisk put there by Salazar Slytherin, putting an end to the two dangerous plots at the same time.
1993 – 1994 (Harry Potter’s third school year)
Siruis Black escape from Azkaban
In 1993, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban. Sirius had been imprisoned there for twelve years for the murder of twelve Muggles as well as Peter Pettigrew. He had also been found guilty of treason against James and Lily Potter, by indicating their location to Voldemort. It also becomes apparent that Black was looking for Harry, as he believes that killing him would give power to Voldemort.
Black enters the school twice. The first time, he assaults the Fat Lady, and another time using Neville’s lost password list. Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Black in the Shrieking Shake with their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, who was friends with Black when they were students at Hogwarts.
They discovered that Black was innocent and that Peter committed the atrocities that Black was falsely accused of. Black has actually returned with the sole purpose of killing Pettigrew. Knowing that Black is innocent, Lupin joins him in killing Peter. However, Harry decides to spare Pettigrew and decides to deliver him to the Dementors.
Peter then succeeds in saving himself and returns later to Voldemort to help him regain his power. Black is captured by Snape. Harry and Hermione go back in time to save Buck, Hagrid’s hippogriff, and Black while Ron recovers from his leg injury in the infirmary.
1994 – 1995 (Harry Potter’s fourth school year)
The Triwizard Tournament and Voldemorts return
The Three Wizards Tournament starts again with this time more thorough security measures. Barty Crouch Jr., under the guise of the Auror Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody using a Polyjuice potion, succeeds in getting Harry into the tournament by adding his name in the Goblet of Fire under a fourth school, which would guarantee his place in the tournament.
Harry’s participation in the tournament causes him a great year of misery, as representatives from Beaux Bâtons and Durmstrang, as well as Hogwarts students, think he is a cheater. It is thanks to the help received by Crouch Jr. and his influence on the people around Harry that he manages to reach the end of the tournament by seizing the Three Wizards Trophy with Cedric Diggory.
But the Three Wizards Trophy has been secretly turned into a Portkey by Crouch Jr. and the two students find themselves in Little Hangleton’s Graveyard. Cedric is killed by Peter Pettigrew under the orders of Voldemort, who regains his physical form by using Harry’s blood and an old dark magical potion.
After escaping Voldemort once again, Harry warns everyone that the Dark Lord has returned. After this revelation, altough the ministry didn’t trust him, Dumbledore decides to reform the Order of the Phoenix.
1995 – 1996 (Harry Potter’s fifth school year)
The Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts is further threatened when the Ministry of Magic begins to implement the education decrees in 1995, which are intended to undermine Albus Dumbledore. Dolores Umbridge, the new teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts and a ministry official, enters the school.
With the school reform, Umbridge slowly takes control of Hogwarts, eventually replacing Dumbledore as a headmaster. But thanks to the intelligence of Hermione Granger and the courage of the members of the Dumbledore’s Army, Umbridge is overthrown. The Ministry of Magic has no choice but to accept the fact that Voldemort is back when they witnessed him at the end of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Umbridge is expelled from the school, and Albus Dumbledore is freed from all the false culpabilities.
1996 – 1997 (Harry Potter’s sixth school year)
New Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour orders the Aurors to protect Hogwarts from the Death Eathers. In 1997, Hogwarts is attacked by an elite group of Death Eaters that Drago Malfoy, forced to join Lord Voldemort’s camps, helped enter the school using the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirements. As a result, the school safety is highly compromised, and Dumbledore is finally killed by Severus Snape.
Following this horrific tragedy, Professor McGonagall becomes the school’s interim headmaster, as the school’s security is hanging by a string, there is no guarantee that Hogwarts would remain open. In the end, it was decided to let the governors decide on its fate.
1997 – 1998 (The Battle of Hogwarts)
Snape becomes headmaster of Hogwarts.
The Ministry of Magic is overthrown by Voldemort and his supporters. Hogwarts remains open, but there are new laws to ensure that only Pure Blood students are accepted and blood tests are carried out. This allows Voldemort to keep an eye on the entire wizarding world. He can keep an eye on wizards who had Muggle’s blood and eliminate them before they have knowledge of their magical powers.
Severus Snape is appointed headmaster upon Dumbledore’s death, and the Carrows are appointed as Snape’s assistants.
Muggle studies, taught by Death Eater Alecto Carrow, is taught to make students believe that Muggles are the worst race in the world and becomes mandatory. The courses of Defense Against the Dark Arts become the Art of Black Magic, taught by Alecto’s brother, Amycus Carrow, who teaches students illegal spells.
The battle of Hogwarts took place on May 2, 1998. Hogwarts suffered enormous losses and damage during this legendary battle. Several areas of the main building and adjacent areas caught fire or exploded and the Quidditch grounds of Hogwarts were largely destroyed by fire.
The battle ends with a large number of casualties on both sides. Thanks to Harry Potter and his friends, Lord Voldemort is finally destroyed forever, and peace is restored. Minerva McGonagall is reinstated as headmaster and Harry is presented as a true hero.
Between 1998 and 2017
After the battle, Hogwarts is rebuilt, and the castle was still open in 2017. Many of the descendants of previous students join Hogwarts and Neville Longbottom becomes a professor of Herbology after retiring from being an Auror.
The school’s crest
The crest represents a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle, surrounding the letter H (which means Hogwarts), symbols of the four houses that have come together to form the school.
Hogwarts Motto
The motto of the school is as follows: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.
English translation: Never tickle a sleeping dragon.
Hogwarts Staff
Hogwarts has many gifted and wise teachers. Many are sorcerers but there are exceptions such as Firenze, the centaur or Cuthbert Binns, a ghost. Each one specializes in a different field. Apart from the teaching staff, there is a small team of people who look after the well being of its occupants.
Registrations
Wizards and witches are enrolled at Hogwarts from birth and receive a letter of admission before their first school year, which begins when they turn 11.
Arrival at Hogwarts
The school year starts every September 1st. It’s a tradition, and a rule, for students to take a special train to Hogwarts. The train takes students from London’s King’s Cross station to the Hogmead station in Scotland.
They usually arrive at their destination in the late evening and are greeted by Rubeus Hagrid, the school gatekeeper. Afterward, students are transported either by boats (exclusively reserved for first-year students) or in carriages pulled by Thestrals.
The students meet together at the banquet at the beginning of the year where they attend the first year’s sorting ceremony.
The sorting ceremony:
Each year, the new students are divided into four houses during the sorting ceremony. The Sorting Hat decides which house the student will attend where they stay there until the end of their studies.
The four school houses:
Gryffindor founded by Godric Gryffindor
Slytherin founded by Salazar Slytherin
Hufflepuff founded by Helga Hufflepuff
Ravenclaw founded by Rowena Ravenclaw
Subjects taught
All students will study seven subjects: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy and Herbology.
First graders must also study flying lessons (on broomsticks).
For their third year, students must choose a minimum of two other subjects from the following list: Arithmancy, Muggle study, Divination, Ancient Runes, and/or Care of Magical Creatures.
Highly specialized subjects, such as Alchemy, are sometimes proposed in the last two years if there is sufficient demand.
Life at Hogwarts
The houses compete for the Four Houses Cup, which is based on a system of good and bad points. There is also the Quidditch Cup, which allows the students to earn extra points. The winner receives the cup at the end of the year.
Activities
Students can also be part of the Quidditch team of their house, except for first-year students. However, there have been exceptions to this in the history of Hogwarts.
Students can also join a club or association.
Exams
To enter the workforce, each student must pass the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s exams, which are prepared in the school. These exams take place respectively at the end of the fifth and seventh year.
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