Hogwarts

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Harry Potter School
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Motto	Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (Never Tickle A Sleeping Dragon)
Established	Circa. 1000
School type	Witchcraft and wizardry
Head	Albus Dumbledore [HP1]–[HP6] Minerva McGonagall [HP6]–[HP7] (assumed)
Location	Scotland, United Kingdom
Enrolment	Children with magical abilities are enrolled at birth and sent acceptance letters at age eleven.[1]
Permanent residents	Rubeus Hagrid Firenze Sybill Trelawney Argus Filch Peeves Nearly Headless Nick The Bloody Baron The Grey Lady The Fat Friar Moaning Myrtle
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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

Contents 1 Overview 2 Enrolment 3 Arrival 4 Houses 5 Terms and holidays 6 Classes and teachers 6.1 Grading and assessment 6.2 Other staff 7 Student life 7.1 Food 7.2 Discipline 8 Location and grounds 9 History 9.1 Early history 9.2 Middle history 9.3 Recent history 10 Coat of arms, school motto, school song 11 Possible name influences 12 Trivia 13 References 14 See also 15 External links

[edit] Overview

Hogwarts is the only known major school of magic in Britain, training people with magical abilities to become fully qualified witches and wizards. Its status is not discussed in great detail in the Harry Potter novels, but it is known to be a co-educational secondary boarding school taking children from ages 11 to 18. J. K. Rowling initially said there are about 1000 students at Hogwarts;^[2] She later suggested around six hundred, while acknowledging that this number was still inconsistent with the small number of people in Harry's year. She further explained that this had resulted from her initially creating only 40 characters (about a classfull) which are those which appear in the books^[3].

There are two other schools of magic mentioned by name in the Harry Potter novels: one, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, is located in France, while the Durmstrang Magical Institute is assumed to be located in Northern Europe (since its uniform includes thick furs, and since the students found the British climate more appealing). The name of a possible school, the Salem Witches' Institute, suggests that it may be found in North America. This organisation is in fact only mentioned in relation to a number of middle-aged witches in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and J. K. Rowling has not confirmed if it is indeed a school of magic in the United States. Goblet of Fire also mentions an unnamed school in Brazil.

It is also possible to study magic by distance learning, a method attempted by Argus Filch, as Harry inadvertently discovered in his second year that Filch was attempting to teach himself basic magic from a KWIKSPELL correspondence course in beginners' magic. ^[HP2]

Management of the school is undertaken by the Headmaster (or Headmistress), assisted by a Deputy Headmaster (or Headmistress). The Head is answerable to the twelve-member Board of Governors.

It is unclear how Hogwarts is funded, although there is no suggestion that students pay fees. Students are required to purchase their own textbooks, robes, and other supplies, however. Some financial aid is available for students; in the sixth book of the series, there is mention of a special fund for books or equipment for needy students.

[edit] Enrolment

There is a magical quill located in Hogwarts which detects the birth of a magical child, and writes their name down in a large parchment book. During the summer, a teacher (in recent years, Professor McGonagall) will check this book and send a letter to the children who will have turned the age of eleven by 31 August. Acceptance or rejection of a seat at Hogwarts must be mailed by 31 July. The letter also contains a list of supplies like spell books, uniform, and other things that the student will need to bring for use at school. The prospective student is expected to buy all the necessary materials, normally from shops in Diagon Alley, a secret street near Charing Cross in London. Students who cannot afford their supplies can receive financial aid from the school, as was the case with the young orphan, Tom Riddle.

Letters to Muggle-born witches and wizards, who may not be aware of their powers or are unfamiliar with the concealed wizarding world, are delivered in person by wizards, who can then explain to the parents all about magical society, and convince them that it's not a hoax.

Each student is allowed to bring either an owl, toad, or cat to keep as a pet while at school. Most students prefer owls because they can deliver mail. Although, other animals have been seen as pets at Hogwarts, most notably Ron's pet rat Scabbers. The school year begins on 1 September.

[edit] Arrival

Students travel to King's Cross station in London to board the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9¾. To get to there, you must run into the stand between platforms 9 and 10. After a journey of some hours, the train arrives at the station in Hogsmeade. From there, first year students are accompanied by the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds to small boats, which magically sail across a lake to arrive in a grotto beneath the castle of Hogwarts. The older students travel up to the castle in carriages drawn by Thestrals.

When the first year students first arrive at the castle, they do not go directly to the Great Hall for the start-of-term feast, the Welcoming Feast. Instead, they must first undergo the Sorting, a very important ceremony. Students at Hogwarts are divided into four houses, each bearing the name of one of the school's original founders. As Minerva McGonagall said in Philosopher's Stone,

The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room.

Following a short speech from the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress, first-year students line up and wait for names to be called in alphabetical order, by surname. One by one, each student is seated upon a stool in front of the rest of the student body, and a magical hat, the Sorting Hat, is placed on the student's head. The Hat examines the student's mind and assigns the student to one of four Houses based on personality and intelligence. After deciding, the hat shouts out the name of the House that it has decided, and the student joins his or her Housemates at that House table.

[edit] Houses

Main article: Hogwarts houses

Like many schools in English-speaking countries, Hogwarts uses the House system. The student body of Hogwarts is divided into four Houses, each named after the wizard or witch who founded it. Because students spend nearly all their time at school with fellow members of their own house, this is a very important part of Hogwarts.

• Gryffindor, characterised by valour and courage, founded by Godric Gryffindor;
• Hufflepuff, characterised by loyalty and a hard work ethic, founded by Helga Hufflepuff;
• Ravenclaw, characterised by wit and intellect, founded by Rowena Ravenclaw; and
• Slytherin, characterised by ambition and cunning, founded by Salazar Slytherin.

Each of the school Houses has a Head of House who exercises additional pastoral and disciplinary responsibilities over his or her House. At the beginning of the series, the Heads of House are Minerva McGonagall for Gryffindor, Pomona Sprout for Hufflepuff, Filius Flitwick for Ravenclaw, and Severus Snape for Slytherin.

There are also House ghosts. They are Nearly Headless Nick for Gryffindor, the Fat Friar for Hufflepuff, the Grey Lady for Ravenclaw, and the Bloody Baron for Slytherin.

Throughout the school year, the four houses compete to earn 'house points'. As a form of incentive or punishment, the achievements or failures of each student — academic or disciplinary — cause their respective house to gain or lose points. In book one, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom find themselves shunned by other Gryffindor students after they are responsible for losing a significant number of house points. Points are recorded in four enchanted hourglasses located in the School's Entrance Hall. For each point or penalty a student earns, a jewel matching the colour of the house (red rubies for Gryffindor, yellow topaz for Hufflepuff, blue sapphires for Ravenclaw, and green emeralds for Slytherin) will rise or fall inside the relevant hourglass. At the end of each school year, the points are added up, and the house with the most points wins the House Cup.

The award or docking of points is automatically detected by magical means, and adjustments are made to the display in the relevant hourglass. It would appear that for an authority figure to deduct points, they must announce the deduction aloud, otherwise no points are removed. For example, when Inquisitorial Squad member Montague tried to dock points from Fred and George Weasley, they managed to lock him inside a cabinet before he could say the words, and thus the points were not deducted.

There appear to be no fixed numbers of points attached to specific actions; this number is decided by a teacher on the spot and may vary greatly. For example in book one, Hermione is punished by only 5 points for (as she claimed) risking her life by seeking a fight with a troll, while later Harry, Hermione, and Neville lose 50 points each for simply being out of the dormitory at night. Houses also receive points based on their performances in Quidditch, such as in Harry's third year.

[edit] Terms and holidays

Hogwarts' school year is structured in a similar way to other Muggle (non-magic) schools and colleges in the UK, with a three-term year punctuated by holidays at Christmas and Easter and bounded by the long summer vacation. Students may optionally stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas break. Those that choose to stay at the castle do not have class and attend a feast on Christmas Day. Students also do not have classes on the week of Easter, but this is much less enjoyable for the students due to the large amounts of work that the teachers assign to their students beforehand.

Other than summer, Easter and Christmas, students do not get days off for holidays. There are normally four feasts per year, the start-of-term or Welcoming Feast and end-of-term or Leaving Feast, as well as feasts at Halloween and Christmas. In Harry's fourth year, there was a fifth feast to celebrate the beginning of the Triwizard Tournament. Also, in Harry Potter's second year, Professor Lockhart decided to celebrate Valentine's Day, much to the dislike of the rest of the staff and a number of (mostly male) students.

[edit] Classes and teachers

Main articles: Hogwarts subjects and Hogwarts teachers

As Hogwarts is a school of magic, students are not taught ordinary subjects such as mathematics and English; it is expected that they have a fairly good grasp on these before they enter school. Before attending Hogwarts, most magical children are either homeschooled or attend Muggle schools, especially if they are Muggle-born.

First and second year students all learn the same subjects:

• Herbology, taught by Professor Sprout as of book 6, which teaches students how to properly care for magical plants.
• Potions, taught by Professor Snape through book 5, and by Professor Slughorn thereafter, which teaches students all about making potions with magical effects.
• Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall as of book 6, which teaches students about changing the properties of objects.
• Charms, taught by Professor Flitwick as of book 6, which teaches students about a wide variety of spells such as making objects float.
• Defence Against the Dark Arts, which teaches students how to properly defend themselves against the Dark Arts, including Dark wizards and creatures, though the subject matter varies greatly from year to year. No teacher of this class has ever held this post for more than a year as Lord Voldemort jinxed the position when he applied for the job and was rejected.
• History of Magic, taught by the ghost of Professor Binns as of book 6, a very boring class which teaches students about historical events in the wizarding world.
• Astronomy, taught by Professor Sinistra as of book 6, which teaches students about stars, planets, etc. and their application in magic.

In addition to these, first year students take flying lessons, taught by Madam Hooch.

In their third year, students must choose at least two additional subjects to take. These can include:

• Muggle Studies, where students learn about the way of life of Muggles, the wizarding term for non-magic people.
• Care of Magical Creatures, taught by Professor Hagrid as of book 3, which teaches students all about magical creatures.
• Divination, taught by Professor Trelawney and the centaur Firenze as of book 6, which teaches students how to predict (or, some would say, attempt to predict) future events.
• Ancient Runes, which teaches students about runic scripts and presumably dead magical languages.
• Arithmancy, taught by Professor Vector as of book 6, which teaches students about the magical properties of numbers.

[edit] Grading and assessment

During their first four years, students need only to pass each of their subjects before advancing to the next level the following year. Regular exams and lessons usually seem to be graded on a numerical scale from 0 (bottom marks) to 100 (full marks) although some students routinely get higher than perfect scores. If a student fails their year, they need to repeat it in the following school year, as was the case for Marcus Flint.

To qualify as a registered practitioner of magic, students must take the compulsory Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.) examinations in their fifth year, and may proceed to the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test (N.E.W.T.) level, a more advanced exam regimen covering fewer subjects but in more depth, in the seventh year.

Subjects are graded on the following scale:

Passing Grades

• O = Outstanding
• E = Exceeding Expectations
• A = Acceptable

Failing Grades

• P = Poor
• D = Dreadful
• T = Troll

The O.W.L.s roughly corresponds to the O-level (now replaced by GCSE), and the N.E.W.T.s to the A-level examinations used in the English state school system. In order to proceed to N.E.W.T., a student usually needs to have achieved at least an E in their O.W.L.s of the same subject, although some professors (e.g. Professor Snape) insist upon a grade of O. Students who fail their exams or don't make high enough grades continue to take O.W.L.-level classes in their sixth and seventh years.^[HP6]

At the beginning of their sixth year, students speak briefly with their head of house and decide which classes to continue in depending on their O.W.L. scores and their goals after school. The classes they decide to continue are considerably more advanced.

Due to the fact that they dropped one or more classes, students in their sixth and seventh year may get several class sessions off per week. But because of the heavy workload that each of their classes assign them, they usually spend these studying and doing homework. At the end of their seventh and final year, students take the N.E.W.T. exams, which test what the student has learned over their entire stay at Hogwarts. Many professions require high grades in these tests, meaning that students must work very hard to ensure that they pass.

[edit] Other staff

Aside from the teachers, Hogwarts has a large number of support staff, including:

• Madam Pomfrey, who is in charge of the castle's hospital wing.
• Rubeus Hagrid, while also a teacher, is the school's groundskeeper.
• Argus Filch, the school's caretaker assisted by his cat, Mrs. Norris.
• Madam Pince, the school's librarian.
• Madam Hooch, who looks over the Quidditch matches held at Hogwarts and teaches first-year students how to fly on broomsticks.
• Over a hundred house-elves, including Dobby, Winky, and Kreacher, who handle the cooking and much of the cleaning.

[edit] Student life

The day begins at Hogwarts with breakfast in the Great Hall. Students sit at their own House table and can eat, socialise, and finish homework at the last minute. At the High Table, at the far end of the hall, the headmaster eats with the professors. During breakfast, owls (student owned or school owned) bring in mail for the students; this could be the morning issue of The Daily Prophet, letters from parents or friends, sweets from home or anything else. A bell signals the start of the first class of the morning at 9 a.m.

There are two long morning classes with a short ten minute break in between them for students to get to their next class (the castle is enormous and it is common for students, especially first years, to get lost). After lunch in the Great Hall, classes resume at 1 p.m., and there is a break around teatime before another class period. First year students sometimes get Friday afternoons off. In the evening students eat their dinner in the Great Hall, after which they are expected to be in their common rooms for studying and socialising.

The four House common rooms are guarded by paintings or hidden behind walls that require a password to gain entrance. Inside is the common room, in which are armchairs and sofas for the pupils, as well as tables for studying. There are fireplaces to keep the rooms warm, and students relax here in the evenings, or else complete their homework. There are notice boards in each common room too, as well as at other strategic points throughout the school. The students stay in their House dormitories while school is in session, which branch off from the various common rooms. Each year gets two rooms; one for boys and one for girls. Each student sleeps in a large four poster bed with bed covers and heavy curtains in the House colours, and thick white pillows. There is a bedside table for each bed, and each dormitory has a jug of cool water and glasses on a tray.

On designated weekends, Hogwarts students in their third year or higher, with a signed permission slip, are permitted to walk to the nearby wizarding village of Hogsmeade, where they can relax and enjoy the many pubs, restaurants and shops. There appears to be a good relationship between the school and the village, and the students get along well with the locals. Favourite places in Hogsmeade include Honeydukes Sweetshop, Zonko's Joke Shop (now closed), clothing stores such as Gladrags Wizardwear, the Shrieking Shack (which is rumoured to be the most haunted building in Britain, making it a tourist attraction) and the pub The Three Broomsticks.

[edit] Food

The food served at Hogwarts is, according to the students, very good. The house-elves at Hogwarts are skilled chefs, and cook a wide variety of dishes for every meal. The food served at the school is fresh and grown locally; the school has vegetable patches by the greenhouses. The meats and other condiments are probably bought in Hogsmeade village, and the various dishes are prepared in the kitchens directly below the Great Hall and, at meal times, magically transported up so that they appear before the students. Hogwarts food is typically British, although the school sometimes makes exceptions (during the Triwizard Tournament, foreign dishes were served in honour of the visiting schools). The usual beverages (apart from water) are tea, coffee, and pumpkin juice.

[edit] Discipline

Apart from losing points from a house, serious misdeeds at Hogwarts are punishable by detention.

According to the school caretaker, Argus Filch, detention meant subjection to various forms of torture until relatively recently, but in present times usually involves assisting staff or faculty with tedious or perilous tasks. Ironically, when, students are caught wandering around the castle at night in book one, for their "detention" they are sent to the even more dangerous Forbidden Forest to help Rubeus Hagrid .

For even more serious offences, students may be suspended or expelled from Hogwarts. Harry Potter comes under threat of expulsion by the Ministry of Magic at the beginning of his fifth year at Hogwarts after he is detected using magic in the presence of Muggles, a serious offence among the wizarding community. The Headmaster Albus Dumbledore argued in Harry's defence, stating that besides the fact that it was done in self-defence, the Ministry has no authority to expel students – such powers are invested in the Headmaster and the Board of Governors.

Professors seem to be able to punish students with relative impunity and can hand out detention, even for unsatisfactory grades. Enforcement of rules outside of class mainly falls to the caretaker, with the assistance of the prefects. A student's Head of House usually has the final say in disciplinary matters.

During their fifth year, two fifth year students from each House are picked to be prefects, which grants them extra privileges and disciplinary responsibilities. There are six prefects per house, all from the fifth, sixth, and seventh year students. The leaders of the student body, the Head Boy and Head Girl, are drawn from the seventh year students, and are usually, though not always, former prefects. (For example, James Potter became Head Boy in his seventh year even though he was never a Prefect. It was Remus Lupin who received the privilege.) Prefects have the authority to deduct points from other students for infractions, though they cannot take points from fellow prefects.

[edit] Location and grounds

Main article: Hogwarts layout

J. K. Rowling says she visualises Hogwarts, in its entirety, to be: ^[1]

A huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements. Like the Weasleys' house, it isn't a building that Muggles could build, because it is supported by magic.

Hogwarts is located in a mountainous and secluded region in Scotland, near a fictional wizarding village called Hogsmeade.^[4] The castle has extensive grounds with sloping lawns, flower beds and vegetable patches, a loch, a large and dense forest (called the Forbidden Forest), a number of greenhouses and other outbuildings, and a full-size Quidditch pitch. There is also an Owlery, which houses all of the owls owned by the school and those owned by students.

The village of Hogsmeade is used as a transit hub and lodging for visitors to the school, and is the location of the nearest railway station. Hogsmeade is the only remaining exclusively magical community in Britain, and is famous for Honeydukes Sweetshop, a well-known magical joke shop Zonko's and pubs The Hog's Head and The Three Broomsticks, and is popular with Hogwarts students, who visit while on breaks from school. Hogsmeade station is reached by a dedicated train service called the Hogwarts Express, which departs from London's King's Cross railway station. On a map drawn by Rowling for the movie crew, the station appears to be south-east of the school, while the village of Hogsmeade appears to be north-west.

Since Apparation is not possible within the school or the school grounds, due to magical security charms, the Hogwarts Express is the primary means of transportation to and from Hogwarts. It is possible to arrive by means other than the school train however; by using broomsticks, Apparating or taking the Knight Bus to a nearby location and walking in, or using other magical means of travelling such as Floo powder, and portkeys. The school still has a network of protective charms and magical barriers, however. The school also owns a number of carriages, drawn by Thestrals, which bring students from Hogsmeade station up to the school entrance. First-year students, after arriving at the Hogsmeade station by the Hogwarts Express, traditionally cross the lake by boat to reach the castle, while the rest of the students are taken by the Thestral-drawn carriages. The carriages pass through enormous gates flanked by winged boars, and then ramble up a curving drive to the main entrance of the castle, passing the loch on their way. After the students have entered the campus, the gates are locked and stringent security measures are reinstalled, as Harry found when he arrived late in book six.

The school is enchanted to repel Muggles (non-magical people), to whom Hogwarts appears to be "a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE". Electronic devices go haywire and do not work around Hogwarts because there is too much magic in the air.^GF Ch. 28

[edit] History

[edit] 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. These four were among the most celebrated European wizards and witches of the age, and they personally trained all their students. As time went on Hogwarts grew in size as more and more students enrolled.

Slowly, cracks began to appear among the four professors. Salazar Slytherin wanted to admit only pure-blood students (students born in families consisting solely of persons with magical abilities), but the other three founders disagreed. Slytherin distrusted half-bloods (only one magical parent) and Muggle-borns (no magical parents) because of the widespread persecution of magic users at the time. Arguments broke out among the founders. Slytherin then secretly built the Chamber of Secrets and left. When an eventual successor, the Heir of Slytherin, returned to the school, he or she would be able to open the Chamber, unleash the monstrous Basilisk within, and purge the school of all non-pure-blood students. The only descendant known to have discovered the Chamber is Tom Riddle, who later came to be known as Lord Voldemort.

[edit] Middle history

Little information is given in the Harry Potter novels about the history of Hogwarts after its foundation, at least prior to the 1940s.

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 socialise. The Tournament continued for six centuries, until the death toll became too high, and it was discontinued until 1994.

[edit] Recent history

The existence of the school was threatened twice when the Chamber of Secrets was opened. The first time it opened was in 1943, when Tom Riddle, the Heir of Slytherin and the future Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber in his fifth year. When a girl named Myrtle was killed, the Ministry of Magic threatened to close the school. Because Riddle spent his time away from Hogwarts in a Muggle orphanage, he did not want the school closed, so he framed Rubeus Hagrid for the deed, who was then expelled.

In Harry's second year, the Chamber was opened by Ginny Weasley under the influence of a diary written by Riddle (one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes). The diary allowed Riddle's memory to possess Ginny, enabling him to act through her to open the Chamber a second time. During the summer before school, Lucius Malfoy secretly planted the diary in her school-books, with the hope that she would be caught and held responsible, thus bringing an end to Arthur Weasley's Muggle Protection Act, as well as purging Hogwarts of non-pure-blood witches and wizards. However, Harry discovered the truth, destroyed the diary, and killed the basilisk that was living in the Chamber.

In Harry's fourth year, the Triwizard Tournament was held once more, though with several safety measures in place. Unfortunately, Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Professor Alastor Moody, cunningly managed to enter Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire under a nonexistent fourth school, ensuring that he would be chosen by the Goblet, an impartial judge. Consequently, Harry became a fourth champion, to the disgust of the representatives from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, as well as many Hogwarts students. Crouch helped Harry along the way, ensuring that he would win, especially in the last Task of the Tournament. Prior to the final task, Crouch had turned the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey, which transported Harry to the Riddle House where Lord Voldemort was awaiting him. Harry escaped, but Voldemort succeeded in using Harry's blood in a complex spell, which allowed him to attain a bodily form and defeat some of Harry's magical protections.

Hogwarts was also threatened when the Ministry of Magic began implementing Educational Decrees in Harry's fifth year, 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 supplanted Albus Dumbledore as headmaster. After she was attacked by centaurs in the Forbidden Forest and the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was forced to accept that Voldemort had returned, Umbridge was removed from the school.

At the end of Harry's sixth year, headmaster Albus Dumbledore was murdered by Severus Snape, a professor at the school. The headmistress of Hogwarts as of the end of the sixth novel is Minerva McGonagall, in an acting capacity following the death of Dumbledore. Since his death, the closure of the school during the crisis has been discussed with many of the faculty adamant that it should remain open. However, the faculty agreed to follow "established procedures" and the school governors will have the final say. The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series will determine the fate of Hogwarts School. During an interview held in 1999, Rowling said that one of Harry's classmates would eventually become a teacher at Hogwarts;^[5] this implies that Hogwarts will remain open, or, if it does close, reopen eventually.

[edit] Coat of arms, school motto, school song

Blazon

• Shield renaissance, Quarterly, I gules a lion salient to sinister Or, II vert a serpent argent, III Or a badger reguardant proper, IV azure an eagle displayed Or, in fesse couped Or scroll with letter H sable, top riband for the name Hogwarts, base riband for the motto "draco dormiens nunquam titillandus".

The motto of Hogwarts is "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus," which in Latin means "A sleeping dragon [is] never to be tickled/poked." Creator J.K. Rowling said she wanted a practical motto for Hogwarts, since so many schools have vague ones such as "Reach for the stars" — approximately "Continge astris" in Latin.

The school song is sung but once in the series, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone at Harry's first meal in the Great Hall. Its lyrics are as follows:

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something, please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

The song does not have a set tune; everyone sings the lyrics at the same time to a tune of their choosing. The matter of the song not being sung every year was addressed by J. K. Rowling on her web site.^[6] She cites the decline in the singing in recent years to the darker times in the wizarding world. "Should Dumbledore ever suggest a rousing encore, you may assume that he is on top form once more," she wrote.

[edit] Possible name influences

In interviews [1] [2], Rowling has intimated that the name "Hogwarts" derives from the hogwort plant (Croton capitatus), which she had seen at Kew Gardens some time before writing the Harry Potter series. The substitution of the letter a (in Hogwarts) for the second o (in Hogwort) suggests deliberate wordplay in the style of Diagon Alley: a spoonerism of warthog.

The plant name may have been selected for a structural similarity to Oxford (Ox-ford; Hog-warts). Rowling sought a place at Oxford University but was rejected, on potentially prejudicial grounds similar to those espoused by "pure-blood" advocates at Hogwarts [3].

By coincidence, the name Hogwarts also features in 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, Molesworth's terrible prep school.

In the 1986 film Labyrinth, Sarah mistakenly refers to the character Hoggle as "Hogwart".

[edit] Trivia

• The dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia ("dragon king of Hogwarts"), first discovered in 2004 and officially named in 2006, was named such by young visitors to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis in reference to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Online chat transcript", Scholastic, 2000-02-03.
2. ^ "About the Books: transcript of J.K. Rowling's live interview on Scholastic.com", Scholastic, 2000-10-16.
3. ^ "The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Two", The Leaky Cauldron, 16 July 2005.
4. ^ "Hogwarts ... Logically it had to be set in a secluded place, and pretty soon I settled on Scotland in my mind." Fraser, L., An interview with J.K.Rowling, Mammoth, London, 2000. ISBN 0-7497-4394-8. pp 20–21.
5. ^ "J.K. Rowling interview transcript, The Connection (WBUR Radio)", WBUR Radio, 1999-12 October.
6. ^ "We haven't heard the school song since the first book. Did the teachers rebel against it?", J. K. Rowling.

[edit] See also

• Hogsmeade
• Hogwarts Houses
• Portraits in Hogwarts
• Beauxbatons Academy of Magic
• Durmstrang Institute for Magical Study

[edit] External links

• The Harry Potter Lexicon's Hogwarts Atlas featuring numerous images of Hogwarts
• The Marauder's Map from the Warner Bros website