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Hogwarts is a magical school in the UK where students study witchcraft and wizardry. It has four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, and is under the guidance of Albus Dumbledore. Hogwarts offers seven years of education, with compulsory courses in the first years and electives after the second year. The school is not traceable by non-magical people, and the four founders of Hogwarts had disagreements over accepting students from non-pure-blood families.
Hogwarts is the school of witchcraft and wizardry invented by JK Rowling in the Harry Potter books. Most of the action in the novels takes place at Hogwarts, which, aside from magical instruction, is similar in structure to most European boarding schools.
The Hogwarts school year runs from September to June. Students can stay in school over the Christmas and Easter holidays, but usually have to go home during the summer. The school in books one through six is under the guidance, for the most part, of Albus Dumbledore.
Readers find in the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that there are actually many schools for teaching magic, yet Hogwarts appears to be the preeminent school in the UK. Rival schools include Beauxbatons, probably located in France, and Durmstrang, probably located in Bulgaria.
Hogwarts may be in England or Scotland, but where it is is of little importance to Muggles, or non-magical people, since it is not traceable. This is a magical device used to make a location secret and make it impossible for anyone to locate it on a map. Rowling’s love of Scotland, however, suggests it might be the place.
As in many modern boarding schools, Hogwarts students live in one of four schools: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The houses are meant to represent some of the characteristics possessed by the individuals belonging to each house.
Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are intelligent, Hufflepuffs are honest players, and Slytherins have a reputation for being crafty, power-seeking and occasionally evil. Students are sorted into houses during the Sorting Ceremony in their freshman year. Sorting involves wearing the Sorting Hat, which makes decisions about the person’s best fit at different houses.
Each house earns points, which are then calculated at the end of the year to pick the winning house of the year. The end-of-term celebration concludes with the presentation of the house cup. In all but the fourth and sixth books, Gryffindor has won the house championship. Mention of the championship does not occur in books six and four due to the deaths of Albus Dumbledore and Cedric Diggory.
Each house has its own dormitory and common room, located in separate parts of the castle. There are many details about the Gryffindor dormitories and common rooms. Also, the second book contains a small description of the Slytherin common room. As the main characters of the novels, Harry, Ron and Hermione are all Gryffindors, no descriptions of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms were given.
Heads of Houses, usually teachers, supervise students at Hogwarts. Since the sixth book hints that Professor McGonagall could take over as headmaster of Hogwarts, it’s unclear who will now be in charge of Gryffindor. Many believe it will be Hagrid. Furthermore, Professor Snape’s departure from the school leaves an opening for a new Head of House for Slytherin, and many believe that Professor Slughorn will come to fill this post.
Students begin their studies at Hogwarts when they are eleven and finish when they are 17 or 18 and have reached adulthood. Hogwarts offers seven years of education. The most important years, graduation-wise, are years five and seven, as these are the years in which students take the OWLS, or ordinary levels of magic, and WIZARDS, the grueling magic tests.
Some courses are compulsory for all students during the first years. These include Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and the History of Magic. After the second year, Hogwarts students can choose electives. Once OWLs are taken, students are directed towards career paths and further electives that can help them pursue later careers as witches and wizards.
The novels often refer to the book Hogwarts: A History, which explains the founding of the school and its various spells. Hermione quotes the story at length. She appears to be the only student who has read the book. Of note is the founding of the school in 993.
The four founders of Hogwarts started out in harmony, but later argued over the wisdom of accepting students who did not come from pure-blood wizarding families. Slytherin left Hogwarts after this discussion, since the other three founders did not share his prejudice about wizards who came from Muggle backgrounds. Some concern about the separation of students into homes was expressed in books four through six. Such separation may prevent students from uniting against Voldemort’s common enemy.
