• Houses and addresses Hagrid’s hut is a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. There was a crossbow and a pair of galoshes outside the front door the first time Harry and Ron visited. “There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper… Read More
• Event When Hagrid joins the fight against the fleeing Death Eaters, Thorfinn Rowle fires off an Incendio spell that ignites the gamekeeper’s wooden house. Hagrid angrily shouts that Fang was trapped in the house, and he ran into the flaming house to rescue the dog while Buckbeak attacked the fleeing Potions Master. When… Read More
• Towns A city in eastern Ontario near the Quebec border, Haileybury is home to the Haileybury Hammers, an accomplished Quidditch team (QA8). Read More
• Ministry of Magic A room located in the Department of Mysteries on Level Nine of the Ministry of Magic (OP34)… Read More
• Place After taking Harry to Diagon Alley for the first time, Hagrid dropped him off at Paddington Station so he could catch a train back to the Dursleys (though this scene was skipped in the film). While they waited for Harry’s train, Hagrid gave Harry his ticket for the Hogwarts Express… Read More
• Place Hampshire, a county in southern England, is the site of the hamlet of Little Dropping – or at least it was until Archibald Alderton blew it up while trying to mix a birthday cake there (fw40). Portsmouth is also located here. Read More
• Businesses, merchants, and shops • City places • Wizarding places Ginny and Mrs. Weasley visited this shop in Diagon Alley prior to Ginny’s first year at Hogwarts (CS4); this is also likely the place where she purchased Ron’s dress robes for the Yule Ball (GF10). Read More
• Place The “village pub” in Little Hangleton, this is the place where the villagers gathered the night Tom Marvolo Riddle killed his father and grandparents, to gossip about the murders. Among the villagers present that evening were the Riddles’ cook and Dot, who remained permanently convinced that gardener Frank Bryce was… Read More
• Towns Little Hangleton is a small village located somewhere in Yorkshire or Lancashire. A town of massive importance to recent wizarding history and yet unknown to most modern wizards, Little Hangleton is found about six miles from its neighbor, Great Hangleton, and is the location of the Riddle House, where Tom… Read More
• Churches and graveyards After Voldemort killed his father and paternal grandparents, they were buried in the graveyard by the church in Little Hangleton (GF1). This, then, is also where Harry was taken by Portkey, saw Cedric Diggory killed and Voldemort reborn, and duelled Voldemort in 1995 (GF34). Read More
• Rooms, chambers, and floors Harry’s bedroom is the smallest bedroom at number four, Privet Drive. Until the end of July in 1991, the bedroom was Dudley’s second bedroom, where he stored all his toys, games, and books when he’d finished with them (or, in the case of the books, discarded them unread). Harry’s room… Read More
• Event As Voldemort and Harry duel in front of the Death Eaters, the twin phoenix feather cores of their wands create a “Reverse Spell Effect” known as Priori Incantatem, and shades of Voldemort’s previous victims come out of his yew wand and protect Harry, including… Read More
• Houses and addresses The family home of Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter and their children James, Albus and Lily. Amos Diggory and Delphi visit Harry there (CC1.6), we see Harry giving his children pre-Hogwarts start-of-term gifts (CC1.7), having nightmares about Lord Voldemort (CC1.9) and discussing the aftermath of a… Read More
• Event Hagrid retrieves the Philosopher’s Stone to take it back to Hogwarts, and helps Harry to withdraw some gold from the fortune he never knew his parents had left him. (PS5) After entering the huge, grand bank and explaining what they want to a goblin, Hagrid and Harry are… Read More
• Event In disguise, Harry and Hermione visit Godric’s Hollow on Christmas Eve. First they see a statue of baby Harry with his parents (disguised to Muggles as a war memorial) and visit James’ and Lily’s graves, where they also see the Deathly Hallows symbol on Ignotus Peverell’s grave and the graves of… Read More
• Event When a letter arrives addressed to Harry in the cupboard under the stairs, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia realize that Dumbledore knows how they’ve been treating the boy. In response, they move Harry into Dudley’s second bedroom, much to Dudley’s chagrin. The next letter, which arrives to following day, is… Read More
• Event Harry and Ron learn that Ginny has been taken into the Chamber and go to offer their knowledge to Professor Lockhart. When they discover he’s trying to take off (and that the things he claimed to have done in his books were actually done by other people), they instead disarm him… Read More
• Event After emerging from the pensieve and realizing that he is a Horcrux and must be killed (DH33), Harry starts walking towards the forest. He is at once terrified and numb. He reflects on how precious life is. He has his Invisibility Cloak on as he passes by the Great… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Rooms, chambers, and floors • Wizarding places The headmaster/mistress of Hogwarts has an office in one of the towers of the castle. The entrance to this office at Hogwarts is behind a statue of a gargoyle on the seventh floor, although it seems to move around since this entrance was found on the second floor on… Read More
• Creatures' homes, lairs, and territories • Islands The Hebrides Islands are a large group of islands located northwest of mainland Scotland, and include the town of Portree on the Isle of Skye. The MacFusty clan lives on these islands, caring for the Hebridean Black Dragons that are native to the area (FB). In the early 1700s, shortly… Read More
• Place Heidelberg is a fairly large city located near Frankfurt in Germany, Heidelberg is the home of the famous Heidelberg castle. More importantly, however, it is also the home of the Heidelberg Harriers, a Quidditch team which once faced off against the Holyhead Harpies for seven days in one of the… Read More
• Houses and addresses We have not been given a location for Hepzibah Smith’s house, though Harry and Dumbledore visited it in the Pensieve. It was here that Tom Riddle first saw Hufflepuff’s cup and Slytherin’s locket – two items which he stole soon afterward and made into Horcruxes. It was a grand house,… Read More
• Gardens and farms A medieval monastery in Worcestershire had this ‘Herbe Garden,’ where Brother Benedict, a Muggle Franciscan monk, was attacked by a Jarvey, though he supposed it to be a giant talking ferret (FB). Read More
• Place A county located on the western edge of England, Herefordshire was where the broomstick game of Swivenhodge originated, a game which is still played in England today (QA2). Read More
• Islands An island located off the coast of Scotland. The legendary potioneer Zygmunt Budge lived on Hermetray (BoP). Read More
• Streets, alleys, and lanes High Street is the main street in Hogsmeade, down which the Hogwarts students walk to enter the town and on which most of the town’s shops are located (OP25). After Voldemort’s return it became rather gloomy, with some of its shops boarded up (HBP12). Read More
• Place The morning after Ron quit the trio’s search for Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Harry and Hermione stalled for a bit before Apparating to their next campsite: a “windswept heather-covered hillside,” where Hermione promptly sat down and cried as Harry cast protective enchantments around them (DH16). A few weeks later, still on… Read More
• Pubs and inns The Hog’s Head Inn is a slightly dodgy pub and tavern, located one or two streets off of the High Street in Hogsmeade. The pub has been a fixture of Hogsmeade for hundreds of years. A worn-out wooden sign hangs over the door, advertising with a “wild boar’s severed… Read More
• Wizarding villages Hogsmeade is the only entirely wizarding village in Britain (PA5). According to tradition it was founded over a thousand years ago, around the same time as Hogwarts, by Hengist of Woodcroft as he was fleeing persecution by Muggles (FW, Pm). It’s a picturesque little village of thatched cottages and… Read More
• Public places • Railway places • Wizarding places The railway station that serves both the town of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts School. A “tiny, dark platform” where the Hogwarts Express ends its journey north from Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters (PS6). The station is located near the lake, and from there a road extends around the lake to Hogwarts Castle (PA5,… Read More
• Event Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave the castle at noon on a mild Saturday in March and walk to Hogsmeade. They buy some outlandish socks at Gladrags as a thank-you gift for Dobby. At 1:30, they meet up with Sirius (who is in his animagus form) at the outskirts of the village… Read More
• Hogwarts Bathrooms were installed in Hogwarts after Muggles invented modern plumbing (Pm). There appear to be a boys’ bathroom and a girls’ bathroom on each floor, although the girls’ bathroom on the second floor is out of order and avoiding because it is where Moaning Myrtle spends most of her time… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
The Hogwarts Express has been the subject of various essays exploring its nature and function. As has been plausibly noted elsewhere on this site, it isn’t really a steam engine, but rather a magical transportation device that mimics a Muggle equivalent in external form and function. This is consistent with the general trend in Wizard “technology,” which seems… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Essays
A number of questions are often asked about the Hogwarts Express—how can it be hidden at King’s Cross so effectively?—why is there always just one compartment left? how can it travel around without being seen? The Hogwarts Express—Muggle features Muggles, it is suggested in OP7, developed technology because they don’t have magic, so… Read More
• Rooms, chambers, and floors Found on the third floor of Hogwarts castle: The statue of humpbacked witch with secret passage to Hogsmeade accessed through a hidden door in her hump The forbidden corridor where Fluffy guarded the trapdoor to the hiding place of the Philosopher’s Stone Umbridge’s office (OP13) Trophy… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Wizarding places Hogwarts castle is located atop a cliff overlooking a lake. The lake is to the south of the castle (PA6) and the front doors face north (see commentary below). There is a small underground inlet, it’s entrance covered with hanging ivy, that leads to a stony beach below the… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds One of the upper levels of Hogwarts castle. A boys’ bathroom is located on this floor (HBP24). There is also a trophy room on this floor (GF25). Hogwarts: Grounds | Dungeons | Ground floor | First | Second | Third |… Read More
• Towns Holyhead is a port city located on an island at the northwest tip of Wales, and is the home of the Holyhead Harpies, an eight-hundred year old Quidditch team and a famous member of the British and Irish Quidditch League (QA7). Read More
• Spells The Homonculous Charm tracks movements. Description Effect: tracks the movements of anyone within a certain area through the use of dots on a parchment. Read More
• Businesses, merchants, and shops Honeydukes is a marvelous wizarding sweetshop located on High Street in Hogsmeade. Description It is owned by Ambrosius Flume (HBP4) and his wife, and is filled with “shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable” (PA10). In addition to the standard wizarding candy that is… Read More
• Streets, alleys, and lanes • Wizarding places A street intersecting Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley near Carkitt Market… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Hospitals The hospital wing is where Hogwarts residents go to have their medical needs met, anything from basic first aid after rough Quidditch matches to treatment for serious medical conditions like petrification from a Basilisk. The hospital wing is the domain of the school matron (U.S.: nurse), Madam Pomfrey. It is located on… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Rooms, chambers, and floors The Hufflepuff common room is round and has a low ceiling, somewhat like a badger’s home. There are little round windows at at ground level. Amenities As we have seen in the other common rooms, it is decorated in House colours, which in this case means that there are lots… Read More
• Countries A small country in eastern Europe, Hungary is home to the Hungarian Horntail dragon species – as well as to a national Gobstones team that, at one point, lost to Wales. The Daily Prophet didn’t cover the match, though, because Gobstones is “deeply boring” (DP1). Read More
• Buildings The Hut-on-the-Rock is a small, broken-down, two-room hut on a rocky island just off the British coast. It’s hard to say exactly which sea the Hut-on-the-Rock rests in, as really any body of water other than the English Channel would have been quite a drive from Little Whinging. However, the… Read More