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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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Harry Potter: Wizarding Schools |
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I’m happy to hear that J.K. Rowling revealed that “there are eleven long-established and prestigious wizarding schools worldwide, all of which are registered with the International Confederation of Wizards."
It not only expands the Harry Potter/Wizarding World universe for fans, but it’s a bit suspicious that such information is only revealed now. It’s been years and I feel like it’s a marketing ploy and I wouldn’t be surprise if it is. After all, the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be hitting theaters in the fall.
The setting of Fantastic Beasts is in the 1920s, seventy years or so before Harry Potter attended Hogwarts. It will focus on the magizoologist Newt Scamander who travels across the world researching and observing many magical creatures for his book. At some point he will stop in New York and will meet people who attended a wizarding school (presumably in or near the U.S.). As it gets closer to the release of the film, more information will be reveal about it.
So far, from what I’ve looked up J.K. Rowling hasn’t revealed that much about the school, Ilvermorny. She has mention that Native American magic "was important in the founding of the school,” but refused to say which specific tribes contributed to Ilvermorny’s founding. She also confirmed that the school is not set in New York or any major cities.
“As a general rule, magical schools tend to be situated in landlocked, mountainous areas (although there are notable exceptions, as will be seen), as such regions are difficult for Muggles to access, and easier to defend from Dark wizards.”
According to Ilvermorny’s position on the map, it’s seems to be located in northern New England or possibly in Canada. Other additions to the wizarding world include the schools of Castelobruxo in the Brazilian rainforest, Mahoutokoro on the Japanese island of Minami Iwo Jima, Uagadou in the Mountains of the Moon, located in an unnamed African country and Koldovstoretz located somewhere in Russia.
We also learned that there are smaller wizarding schools, but these tended to be short-lived, and often not regulated. And most countries in the world did not have their own wizarding school at the time. Magical children in these countries were typically home schooled or educated via correspondence courses. But by now, times have change and I’m quite positive that smaller schools do exist even if they’re not that known.
It has me wondering though, how are the children chosen, especially muggleborns when it comes to schools? Does it depend on their location to whatever school is closest to them? After all, it doesn’t seem possible for every child to go to the only prestigious school in their area (even more so when you have to consider the travel and language barriers). Or maybe when they come of age they are given a list of local wizarding schools to pick from? Maybe when it comes to the prestigious schools they have to apply and hope they’re picked? Maybe they take a test to be accepted? Or they are discourage by the intuition fee or something? That can be problematic for muggleborns and those that aren’t well off if that is true. But than again, some school may not accept muggleborns such as the Durmstrang Institute.
We already know that all the schools have their own methods and aren’t going to be exactly like Hogwarts. As for the language barrier, it’s possible that they offer them a language course. Or they use some sort of spell that allows everyone to communicate with each other until they actually learn it. It’s always good to learn more than one language so I wouldn’t be surprise if it’s a requirement.
But when it comes to traveling, it makes sense for students to have the option of boarding if they live too far. Some schools offer this option, but I’m sure that not all of them do. Speaking of which I know that Mahoutokoro offers boarding, but what I don’t get is how it’s possible for the children to fly back and forth to their homes every day on the backs of giant storm petrels. I’ve heard that the traveling time takes hours (about four or more depending on where the child’s home is and not considering bad weather) and the children do that every day.
I wouldn’t find that hard to believe if they weren’t flying on the backs of giant birds because I don’t think they can fly that fast. But most people will probably tell me that I’m over-thinking these things and that the answer is magic. It doesn’t work that way, even magic has rules. It would make better sense if every child is assigned a bird. And that the birds fly into a portal in a certain location in the sky (which airplanes and whatnot can’t get into) that cuts down the distance and time to get to school and back home. Also I’m guessing that these birds and/or the children’s robes have some sort of enchantment on them that prevents people from seeing them.
I might be nick-picking these things, but even though I’m happy to have the Harry Potter world expanded, some of the stuff I learned about the schools don’t make sense. But that’s not something I want to get into right now. Anyway, I hope there are more wizarding schools. I would find it strange if there aren’t more well-known schools even if they aren’t as old as the prestigious ones that J.K. Rowling listed. So maybe that information is yet to come.
 DamnBlackHeart · Tue Feb 02, 2016 @ 06:00pm · 0 Comments |
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