Settings: Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft & Wizardry -- Tales From The Daily Prophet

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.
Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has existed for over one thousand years, becoming the standard for all other schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is located in Scotland on a lake, with spacious grounds. It is adjacent to the train station at Hogsmeade and indeed is a short walk to that town, the only all Wizarding town in the United Kingdom.

So reads your acceptance letter and your adventure into a new world of which you were never aware existed begins. Or perhaps a world you were born into and know very well. Either way, you are excited and have to get your supplies.

All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book Of Spells (Grade 1) By Miranda Goshawk
A History Of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginner's Guide To Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-protection by Quentin Trimble

1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad ((Note: These are not the only familiars allowed, but they are the ones listed in the first book. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Ms. Rowling gives us the above list, then has Ron Weasley bringing a rat))

Time to go to Diagon Alley and Gringotts for your money, either to make a withdrawal from your wizarding account or to exchange your muggle money for brass knuts, silver sickles or gold galleons. Then down the cobblestone street to Flourish and Blotts for books and writing supplies, Madam Malkins for your robes, and various other shops for all of the things you need. Perhaps your visit will include refreshing yourself at Fortescue's with ice cream, or perhaps a meal or drink at The Leaky Cauldron. Then you buy your ticket for the Hogwarts Express

Your journey begins in earnest on September first at King's Cross station and platform 9 3/4 (best go at a bit of a run if you're nervous) and the train ride on the Hogwarts Express that takes all day from London to Scotland. Lots of new people to meet, the Prefects and Head Boy and Girl having their own fancy compartment. There is an elderly witch with a trolley of snacks and sweets that comes by part way through the day, selling wizarding drinks and sweets: Iced pumpkin juice, Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, Chocolate Frogs that not only jump but have a collector card of a famous witch or wizard, and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean (A Risk In Every Mouthful!). When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour. It is nearly nightfall when you disembark the red steam powered train and someone calls out for First Years to follow him.

You are all put in boats that magically glide over a lake of dark water toward a large and old castle, with four towers and many out buildings, a forest in the distance on one side of the lake. The water undulates a bit. Is it the giant squid being playful or a grindylow hoping one of you will fall in so it can grab you and drag you down? Or perhaps the Mer people have left their city at the bottom of the lake to get a glimpse of the new students.

Your boat glides under a curtain of ivy into a underground dock that has stairs leading to the great main doors of the school. There you are all as a group handed over to a senior staff member and you are told that you are about to be sorted into your houses.

"There are four houses here at Hogwarts. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. This house will be your family while here at Hogwarts. You will have classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, our triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Up the rest of the stairs and past a large board that has the total points for each house. At the beginning of the year it will be blank, but not for long.

You are ushered into the Great Hall, a large room with a fireplace at one side, four long tables, and, if you look up, a ceiling that is enchanted to mirror the sky outside, whatever the weather. On the far left is the table for Slytherin House, next to it is the table for Ravenclaw. On the center right is the table for Hufflepuff, and on the far right near the fireplace is the table for Gryffindor House. You are marched up the center aisle toward the table at the head of the room, where the staff of Hogwarts sit smiling. There's a stool. Your name is called, an old and tattered hat is placed on your head.

"Interesting, hmmm... a lot here. You could be great you know... I know what to do with you..." says the hat to only you. Then it calls out the name of a house for everyone to hear and there are cheers for you from that table.

...You might belong in Gryffindor
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends...

You're greeted by your new 'family' and set down at their table. In each year there are forty students, ten per house, five girls, five boys. That is seventy students per house, two hundred eighty for the entire school. Each house has two prefects, a girl and a boy fifth year or above. The most exemplary students in seventh year become Head Boy and Head Girl. Suddenly the air is filled with silver flying shapes. It's the ghosts who associate themselves with the houses! Slytherin's Bloody Baron, covered in silver blood streaks and looking stern. The Gray Lady, young and sweet and melancholy for Ravenclaw, the Fat Friar who is chubby and full of good humor for Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor has Sir Nicholas de Mimsey-Porpington, but all of your housemates call him just Nearly Headless Nick. Nearly headless? How can anyone be nearly headless? He shows you by nearly removing his ghostly head, it only hanging on by a small bit of skin. Are they they only ghosts? No, there are more, about twenty or so throughout the castle.

Soon the feast is over with admonishments to mind the rules, the Prefects and not to go into the Forbidden Forest as it is completely off limits. You are dismissed, the feast vanishes from the tables. Your Prefects take you to your common rooms.

If you're Gryffindor up you go, up to your tower. "Mind the stairs. They like to change." Say your Prefects. And the stairs, if you look up to the other levels, are moving from time to time, swinging about from one side to another. You climb up several levels as portraits all say hello, past doors that are hidden by sliding panels or tapestries. Your long journey ends at a tall portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress. "Password." She challenges. One of your Prefects says the word. With a smile her portrait moves open like a door and indeed she is a door. A cozy, round room that has lovely tapestries and red carpet and squashy furniture as well as tables and wooden chairs is revealed. A large fireplace is in the room, and two stairs are there and a balcony between them. Your prefects show you to the dorms for your years, up spiral staircases. A sign says 'First Years' on the door. As you open it there are five large four-poster beds with red velvet hangings. Your trunks are here already, next to a bed. There is a bed table next to each bed. You are home. You sleep in a room with every boy (or girl) in your year in your house.

Ravenclaws will follow their Prefects on a similar journey, but will not go up so far, and will stop at a tapestry on one of the walls. The password is given and in you go to your comfortable common room done in blue, as is the furniture, a large fireplace here as well. The dorms are similar to Gryffindors.

Hufflepuffs will follow their Prefects to a statue and then the password is given. The statue moves aside and the door to your common room, done in soothing brown tones with a cozy fire it the fireplace is revealed, your dorms easily found and like the others.

Slytherins head down, toward the dungeons of the castle, and to a crack in the wall where the password is spoken, your dark common room, the fireplace not lit, done in greens and dorms that are on an even lower level, though similar to all the others, are here.

Meals are held at regular times, though breakfast and lunch has a two hour drop-in period due to class schedules. Dinner is at 5:00 p.m. on the dot and the only meal where all the students are together during the day, so this is where Staff makes their announcements. Study is taken in your common room, but also can be done in the Great Hall or the Library. Many people use empty classrooms, too, for practice, of which there are more than many. There is a music room with all sorts of magical and non-magical instruments. Besides the above listed gathering places, some students got out on the lawn near the lake, to study, have a snack, or just talk. Sometimes just to annoy or play with the giant squid. Quidditch practice takes place on the pitch, and there is a way to reserve it through one of the teachers. Details on the game and the schedule and team rosters are here. There is a hospital wing if you feel ill or get injured, and Madam Pomfrey never asks how you got in the condition you are in, she merely treats you.

Many students know of secret passages either around the school or out of the school to other places. Many know how to break into the kitchens. There are lots of undiscovered rooms. You'll have to explore yourself or find someone who knows them to find out.

Curfew is at 9:00 p.m., meaning everyone must be out of the corridors, Great Hall or library or bath and in their common rooms by that time. Light's out is 11:00 p.m., but if you stay up in your common room quietly you will likely not be discovered. Loud parties, though, will have your housemaster descending on you to send you all to your dorms. Exceptions to curfew will have a special pass (given because they are either studying for something, teacher's assistants, or teacher's pets), or will be Prefects or Head Boy or Head Girl. These special students with badges saying they are Prefects or Head Boy or Head Girl, plus the caretaker, Argus Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, all make rounds in the corridors and other places to catch students out of bed and give them detention and take points off.

((NOTE: All dates approximate, the concrete dates will be listed on the room doorway and the Forums each month.))

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Rules
Setting
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Contact

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| Sanguinem Draconis | Message Board | Avatar Reserve | Contact |