Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a fictional school of magic that is the main setting of the Harry Potter series.

Hogwarts Castle is a wondrous, magical building with many towers and turrets. It is home to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If a Muggle approaches the castle, all they see is a mouldering ruin with a sign warning them to keep out, that it's unsafe. Hogwarts is built in a forested area, directly next to a fairly large lake, in the highlands of Scotland. The main entrance to Hogwarts is a set of huge oak doors which face more or less toward the west. The lake is to the south of the castle. The forest is very large, and parts of it extend around to the west of the castle.

The school grounds feature a Quidditch pitch, the lake, the Forbidden Forest, and at least three greenhouses.

Hogwarts is divided into four houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Students reach Hogwarts by a train called the Hogwarts Express. No apparition is possible on the school grounds, although adults seem to show up by means other than the school train; using brooms, or apparating to a nearby location and walking (shown in book 6), or probably using other magical means of traveling such as Floo powder. The school has strong charms around it to repel "Muggles" (non-magic people). In fact, if a Muggle were to walk by, Hogwarts would look like an old ruin with a sign saying 'Keep Out'. Electronic devices do not work on Hogwarts grounds; there is too much magic in the air.

The motto of Hogwarts is "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", which in Latin means "Never tickle a sleeping dragon". J. K. Rowling said she wanted a practical motto for Hogwarts, since so many schools have less pragmatic ones such as "Reach for the stars".

Several professors make up the Hogwarts faculty, each specialising in a single subject (see subjects). Other staff positions include that of school nurse, caretaker, librarian, and gamekeeper/groundskeeper. About a hundred house-elves work in the kitchen.

It is unclear how Hogwarts is funded, and its fee structure. It is assumed that students pay for the education themselves. It is mentioned that a special fund is set up for needy students' books/equipment. Apparition lessons, which are optional, are offered to sixth years or anyone 17 years old for a fee of 12 galleons.

The logistics of the classes seem fairly remarkable. Each professor teaches one subject to all seven years (five years for some subjects, including Divination, Arithmancy, and others) and there are at least two sessions for each year from the third through the fifth (first through fifth for core subjects such including Potions, History of Magic, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts) since Gryffindor is always said to be paired exclusively with Slytherin in Potions, for example, or Hufflepuff in herbology. NEWT-level classes in the sixth and seventh years, however, are not divided into multiple sections. At least once the classes were stated as being an hour and a half long. If all of the classes are this length, the professors of core subjects teach anywhere from 36 hours a week if each class meets twice a week and 90 hours if classes meet five times which seems quite unlikely. Professors of non-core subjects would teach between 24 and 60 hours a week. Without the aid of a time-turner, the higher numbers seem quite unlikely.

Rowling may have taken the name Hogwarts from the Molesworth books. The Hogwarts is the title of one of Molesworth's imitation Latin plays, and Hoggwart is also the name of the headmaster of Porridge Court, a rival of St. Custard's, the terrible prep school that Molesworth attends.


History

A. Early History

Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by two wizards and two witches: Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff. Shortly after founding Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin had a falling out with the other founders. Slytherin wanted to admit only pure-blood students, but the other three founders disagreed. Slytherin left the school, but not before secretly building the Chamber of Secrets. When his own true heir, the Heir of Slytherin, returned to the school, he or she would be able to open the Chamber, unleash a horrible Basilisk, and purge the school of all Muggle-born students.

The Chamber of Secrets

After starting Hogwarts the founders found it hard to get along with Salazar Slytherin. This was because he wanted only students with magic families to come to Hogwarts but not magic students from Muggle families.
Slytherin felt left out of the group so he bulit a secret chamber in the girls toilets on the second floor girls toilets at Hogwarts.
This chamber was named the chamber of secrets and could only be opened if you told the tap with a snake engraved on it to 'open' in parsel mouth.
Parsel mouth is the language that snakes speak and some wizards are born with it but very few are. Salazar Slytherin was one of them and he knew none of the founders could find his chamber if he made it only open to parselmouths.
Slytherin bbuilt a statue of himself and magicked it so that when you speak parsel mouth to the statue a basilisk would come out.


B. Middle History

About three hundred years after the school was founded, the Triwizard Tournament began between the three most prestigious magical schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. This Tournament was considered the best way for wizards of different nationalities to meet and socialize. The Tournament continued for six centuries, until the death toll became too high, and the Tournament was discontinued until 1994 (the schoolyear depicted in Goblet of Fire).


C. Recent History

The existence of the school was threatened twice when the Chamber of Secrets was opened. The first time it was opened was in 1942, when Tom Riddle, the Heir of Slytherin and the future Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber in his sixth year. When a girl named Myrtle was killed, the Ministry of Magic threatened to close the school. As Riddle spent his time away from Hogwarts in a Muggle orphanage, he did not want the school closed, so he framed Hagrid.

In 1992, the Chamber was opened by Ginny Weasley, under the influence of a diary written by Riddle (one of the Dark Lord's horcruxes). The diary allowed Riddle's memory to possess Ginny, allowing him to act through her to open the Chamber a second time. Lucius Malfoy had secretly planted the diary in her schoolbooks, with the hope that she would be caught and held responsible, thus bringing an end to Arthur Weasley's Muggle Protection Act. However, Harry Potter discovered the truth, destroyed the diary, and killed the basilisk that was living in the Chamber.

In 1994, the Triwizard Tournament began once more, though with several safety measures in place. However, Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Professor Alastor Moody, entered Harry Potter's name in the Goblet of Fire under the name of a fourth school, ensuring that he would be chosen by the Goblet. He used a Confundus Charm to trick the Goblet into forgetting that only three schools could compete in the tournament. Consequently, Harry became a fourth champion, to the great disgust of the representatives for Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, as well as many Hogwarts students. Crouch Jr. made sure that Harry won the Tournament, having turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey, which carried Harry straight into the hands of Lord Voldemort. Harry escaped, but Voldemort succeeded in using Harry's blood in a complex spell, which allowed him to attain a bodily form and defeat certain of Harry's magical protections.

Hogwarts was also threatened when the Ministry of Magic began implementing "Educational Decrees" in 1995, as part of a conspiracy to discredit Albus Dumbledore. Dolores Umbridge, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, was the centre of this plan. With the Educational Decrees, she slowly took control of Hogwarts, and eventually replaced Albus Dumbledore as headmistress. After she was attacked by Centaurs in the Forbidden Forest and Cornelius Fudge was forced to accept that Voldemort had returned, Umbridge was removed from the school.


Facts About Hogwarts

~ Hogwarts has seven floors.

~ The Sorting Hat was Godric Gryffindor's hat.

~ The only way to get to Hogwarts is to catch the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross station in London unless you live in Hogsmeade the only wizarding town in Britian which is hidden from Muggles. You must go to platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station which you get to by going through what appears to be a solid barrier. The Hogwarts Express will then take you to the village of Hogsmeade then coaches will await you to take you up to Hogwarts Castle.

~ The Hogwarts motto is "Draco Dormien Nuquam Titillandus" which translated in to English is "Never tickle a sleeping Dragon".

~ A few years ago, the famous James Potter and his friends created a magical map that shows every activity, secret and person at Hogwarts. They named it the Marauders Map.

~ Hogwarts is surrounded by the Forbidden Forest, which is inhabited by many facsinating creatures, such as: Centaurs, Monsterous spiders, The Wealeys Ford Anglea( now running wild!) Unicorns, and plenty others. This forest if off limits to any and all Hogwarts students, unless they are in there serving as harsh detention.

~ The teachers at Hogwarts are very strict when it comes to discipline. For
instance, if you mistreat a book in the Hogwarts School Library their is a
great chance the book is bewitched to hit you in the head, set your hair on
fire, or some other weird thing that you would never expect. So be careful
not to accidentally doodle on the cover of a Hogwart's Book, for you never
know what may happen!

~ Muggles cannot see Hogwarts. Instead if they do lay their eyes upon Hogwarts they will see a dangerous reckage.

~ Hogwarts holds over 100 house elves which is the largest number of house elves in one place in the world.

~ Muggle devices don't work in Hogwarts because there is too much magic in the air..

~ You cannot apparate into or out of Hogwarts.

~ The Hogwarts lake is home to a giant squid and Merpeople (see Monster Book of Monsters).

~ Hogwarts is a riddle to everyone. It has many secret passges, some known, some not, some used, others unused. Hogwarts is also so possessed by magic that places in Hogwarts regularly move around. Including the armor.

~ The entrances to all the common rooms are hidden. For instance the gryffindor entarnce is a portrait and the Slytherin entrance is a hidden trap door in the dungeons.

~ There are 142 stair cases in Hogwarts. Some take you to a different place on Fridays and some that have steps that you will have to remember because they are vanishing steps that dissapear when you touch them, the stairs at Hogwarts come in many different shapes and sizes that take you all around Hogwarts. You have to trust and approach the stairs cautiously if you want to get around Hogwarts. To get through some doors you have to ask politely, do whatever the door tells you to do or tickle them in exactly the right place. Sometimes the walls pretend to be doors so you have to be careful and try to remember everything....which is impossible when it comes to memorizing everything about Hogwarts.

~ Sometimes unknown rooms appear at random times at Hogwarts, maybe this book should be called Hogwarts a Mystery?

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