The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter Read online

  Students who receive five or more A* to C grades are allowed to take A-LEVEL classes during the Sixth Form. A grade below C in English or math can result in retaking the exam or in leaving school to join the work-force, although that is extremely rare at the best boarding schools.

  Likewise, O.W.L.s are given by the Wizarding Examinations Authority at the end of the fifth year (like the GCSE, usually at about age 16). O.W.L.s are spread out over two weeks; theory exams are given in the morning, while practice exams are in the afternoon. The exception is Astronomy, which is tested at night.

  Grades are as follows:• O = Outstanding

  • E = Exceeds Expectations

  • A = Acceptable

  • P = Poor

  • D = Dreadful

  • T = Troll

  As you may have guessed, a “T” is really, really bad, as if you have the intellect of a troll. Ouch. Like the GCSE, O.W.L. results guide students’ last two years of coursework. Failure to achieve a passing grade in an area usually means that classes in that area are no longer available to students. At British boarding schools, after the GCSE, students begin to specialize, moving from O (ordinary) subject levels to A (advanced) levels.

  Another similarity between O.W.L.s and the GCSE is that students can try crazy stunts—cramming and cheating in the Muggle world; eating the remains or other substances of magical creatures in the wizarding world. And wizard professors have a slightly easier task than their Muggle counterparts because they can employ anti-cheating charms. Both Muggle and wizard students receive their scores during the summer.

  At the end of their education, both Muggle and wizard students take another exam: the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the N.E.W.T.s, respectively. For the IB, students are tested in six subjects (language, second language, individuals and societies, experimental sciences, mathematics, and arts) and write what’s called an extended essay (4,000 words) in one subject, based on individual research that’s guided by a mentor.

  N.E.W.T.s, on the other hand, are Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests taken in the seventh (final) year at Hogwarts. Passing N.E.W.T.s is not necessary in order to graduate from Hogwarts, but good N.E.W.T. scores are required before graduates can enter certain fields. For example, to become a healer requires an “E” in N.E.W.T.s in Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. And that makes sense, given that healers have to reverse the effects of potions, charms, curses, and the like. Other careers include Muggle relations, curse-breaking, professional Quidditch, retail sales, publishing, and public relations, and each has its own exam requirements.

  TOURIST TIP

  Next time you’re near a pretty, expensive boarding school, on either side of the pond, stop in and ask its motto. Chances are, it’s in Latin and it waxes philosophical about the grandeur of the school and/or the students. Case in point, Eton’s Floreat Etona ("Let Eton flourish”) and Charterhouse’s Deo Dante Dedi ("Because God has given, I give”). Hogwarts motto, on the other hand, oozes practicality: Draco Dormiens Nunquan Titillandus ("Never tickle a sleeping dragon”).

  Hagrid’s Hut and the Forbidden Forest

  Rebeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, as well as Care of Magical Creatures professor, does not live in Hogwarts castle, as do the other professors. Instead, Hagrid lives in a small hut at the edge of the grounds, near the forbidden forest, where he often ventures, in spite of the centaurs, unicorns, and giant man-eating spiders that lurk there (see Chapter 2 for more on these creatures). In the Muggle world it is not uncommon for a school’s groundskeeper to live in a small building separate from—but still on the grounds of—the campus.

  Just at the edge of the forbidden forest is the Whomping Willow, a tree that, when provoked (which is generally when any students are nearby), starts thrashing its long, willowy branches, breaking everything in sight. Press a knot on the tree trunk, however, and the tree ceases all movement. Fans of The Princess Bride movie will immediately recall the knot on the tree in that movie that reveals a secret torture chamber below.

  The forest is off-limits to all students, unless they are with Hagrid or another teacher. And what would a fantasy tale be without a tempting forbidden forest? Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and myriad other fairy tale characters have lost themselves in dense forests that were supposed to be off-limits. In addition, the best-known fantasy literature is teeming with dark, frightening forests: Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest; the dense forests of Lewis’s Narnia; the Forest Sauvage in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King; and the many forests in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (the Old Forest, Lothlorien, and Fanghorn Forest).

  TOURIST TIP

  If you’re traveling to the Netherlands, put Efteling, an amusement park in the town of Kaatsheuvel, on your list for its Disney-like Fairy Tale Forest, which is comprised of authentically designed buildings nestled in a pine forest, representing scenes from ten different well-known fairy tales. Visit for details.

  Hogsmeade

  Hogsmeade, a village near Hogwarts, has the distinction of being the only entirely wizarding city in Great Britain. This means that, unlike Diagon Alley (see Chapter 7), which is situated in the middle of Muggle-laden London, Hogsmeade doesn’t have any nonwizards nearby. Hogsmeade is a city that doesn’t exist on Muggle maps, and, like Hogwarts School, it’s Unplottable, so nonwizards never wander into it.

  Like the school, Hogsmeade derives its name from a long connection of pigs and magic. “Mead” means both an alcoholic drink (a beverage that flows in the village pubs) and “meadow,” the image of which the quaint village elicits.

  And Hogsmeade is nothing if not quaint. The entire town is made up of thatched cottages and shops, just like a seventeenth-century British country town (many of which remain in the same charming state today— if you drive or take the train through the British countryside, you’ll see many such quaint villages). The main street is called High Street, a name as common to British towns as “Main Street” is to small-town USA.

  Hogsmeade boasts an eclectic mix of eateries and shops that rivals Diagon Alley in London. They are discussed in the remaining sections of this chapter.

  Dervish and Banges

  If you knew that a dervish is a whirling, chanting, frenzied person (as a part of some Muslim religious practices, not unlike the quaking and shaking that took over some Protestant groups early in U.S. history), and if you thought of the word “bang” as meaning “a loud noise,” what would you think Dervish and Banges sells? If you guessed something loud and frenzied, you guessed right: Dervish and Banges sells magical wizarding instruments—which, almost by definition, because they are magical, would be unpredictable and, potentially, combustible. The actual objects sold in this store, however, are not well-documented in Rowling’s novels.

  Hog’s Head

  The Hog’s Head is a pub in Hogsmeade that’s not on the main road. It is, in fact, rather dark, dirty, and smelly; it’s considered a far second to the Three Broomsticks (described later in this chapter), and students rarely frequent this pub. The name may be drawn from The Boar’s Head in Shakespeare’s Falstaff.

  Honeydukes

  A favorite of kids and adults alike, Honeydukes is a shop that sells the latest in wizard sweets, along with sweets that Muggles love, too: toffee, chocolate, and nougat (a chewy candy made from egg whites, honey, and chopped nuts).

  The name likely derives from honeydew, the sweet melon, but also evokes another sweet (honey) and all things British (dukes and duchesses). There was also a Duke’s Candy Store on Hoe Avenue in the Bronx in the 1960s, when J.K. Rowling was a child, but it isn’t likely she ever knew it existed.

  Muggles can also enjoy wizard candies without leaving the comfort of their homes. Jelly Belly sells Bertie Bott’s Beans, and several online candy companies have taken to manufacturing and selling everything from Chocolate Frogs to Cockroach Clusters. See Appendix B for a few wizard candy websites.

  MAGIC TALE

/>   Chocolate frogs and cockroaches were first introduced to England in the 1970s in a Monty Python skit (now available on DVD) about the Whizzo Chocolate Company, which was being investigated by Inspector Praline (played by John Cleese) for using actual frogs in its Crunchy Frogs candy and real cockroaches in its Cockroach Clusters. Other candies from the skit include Ram’s Bladder Cup and Anthrax Ripple.

  Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop

  “Pud” is a British abbreviation for pudding, which is a creamy, mushy, often-sweet food. And creamy, mushy, and sweet is the ideal description for Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop (which also serves coffee). Decorated with bows, lace, and other frills, the tea shop is frequented by Hogwarts couples, so there’s a lot of hand-holding and smooching going on here.

  Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop

  Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop chose the ideal spot for a retail business that sells parchment, quills, and inks. Students burn through these supplies like water—it’s the equivalent to having an Apple computer store on a college campus. Quills are not only utilitarian but also beautiful—for example, students might splurge on a long pheasant-feather quill the same way Muggle students might opt for a hot-pink iPod.

  The store is aptly named: a “scrivener” is a scribe, clerk, or secretary; a “shaft” is a handle, such as that on a quill.

  Three Broomsticks

  The Three Broomsticks is the place for hot butterbeer, along with stronger beverages, such as mulled mead and red currant rum. The proprietor, Madam Rosmerta, is attractive, outgoing, and well-liked; all important attributes in a female barkeep. In Celtic mythology, Rosmerta was the goddess of abundance and good harvest.

  The Three Broomsticks could also be the “inn” Hermione Granger refers to as the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and that would give the inn a rich, interesting history.

  Descriptions of the Three Broomsticks evoke a strong sense of the Shire’s the Green Dragon in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Both are described as crowded, inviting, cheerful, and smoke-filled. Of course, nearly any good bar could be described that way—and that is the point: the Three Broomsticks is a place you’d want to hang out.

  MAGIC TALE

  The magical world of Harry Potter features three pubs: the Leaky Cauldron; the Hog’s Head; and the Three Broomsticks. In including pubs in her novels, Rowling follows a long tradition that began with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which the travelers began their journey at the Tabard pub. Dickens’ novels and Shakespeare’s plays contain a large number of pubs (and at least in Dickens’ case, he borrowed the names of real pubs); Tolkien described the Prancing Pony and the Green Dragon in The Lord of the Rings; and Treasure Island gave us the famed Admiral Benbow.

  Like any thriving city, shops in Hogsmeade go out of business and/or change ownership from time to time, but the city remains a haven for wizards.

  Chapter 9

  International Wizarding Schools

  In This Chapter • Finding the world’s wizarding schools

  • Learning about Beauxbatons

  • Knowing more about dark Durmstrang

  • Understanding the Triwizard Tournament

  Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry isn’t the only game in town; at least two other large wizarding schools exist in Europe: Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute for Magical Study. And there are smaller schools at which you can hone your wizarding skills; but like the three largest schools, they are nearly impossible to locate without insider information, because each school guards itself and its secrets zealously.

  Locating Wizarding Schools Around the World

  To those who have no business being there (that is, nonmagical folks and even uninvited wizards), a wizarding school appears to be a dangerous, abandoned wreck of a building, one that would be marked “Condemned” in the Muggle world. In addition, every wizarding school is protected by spells that make it Unplottable and, thus, keep away unsuspecting Muggles and devious wizards.

  KING’S ENGLISH

  To plot is to mark the location of a building, street, or piece of land on a map. So, by definition, to unplot would be to remove the location of a building on a map. Unplottable objects take this one step further, however: they are not only removed from maps but are also removed in actual appearance. To the unaware observer, the building simply appears not to be there. Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the secret location of the Order of the Phoenix, is such an Unplottable building. Passersby would see Number Eleven and Number Thirteen; Number Twelve is visible only to those who have business there.

  Beauxbatons Academy of Magic

  Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is located in a warm, breezy palace in the Mediterranean, where students wear lightweight, luxurious silk robes. These students find Hogwarts Castle, by comparison, to be cold and damp—which, let’s face it, it probably is, given the climate in Great Britain! The Beauxbatons student body is co-ed (although the girls, with their dizzying beauty, tend to take center stage), and they speak both French and thickly accented English, so we can presume the school is located in the south of France.

  The coat of arms (which is more formally called a heraldic device) for the school is two crossed golden wands, each with three stars emanating from it. A wand in the magical world is akin to a sword in medieval times, and the combination of swords and stars has historically been common in heraldic devices. Finland’s provinces, in particular, combine swords with stars, but so do the coats of other nations and regions. Having three stars, in particular, is common on heraldic devices of countries, states, and religious groups. In the United States, three stars on a flag or coat of arms usually refers to the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial); in other parts of the world, it may relate to three provinces coming together to form a nation or to the importance of the Blessed Trinity (God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) in that faith. Note that, in medieval times, stars were referred to as mullets, which carried a far different meaning than that of the popular haircut of the 1980s.

  Where the Name Comes From

  Beaux bâtons is French for beautiful sticks, which likely refers to beautiful wands. But the girls of Beauxbatons (and their wands) are just as intelligent as they are beautiful; when they arrive at Hogwarts for a tournament, they sit at the Ravenclaw table, indicating that they are as brilliant and clever as the wizards in that Hogwarts house, which is famous for its intelligence.

  TOURIST TIP

  When the Beauxbatons students visit Hogwarts, a few French foods are offered for all students to try. When visiting France or the Quebec province in Canada, you can also taste the two French foods served in the Great Hall: bouillabaisse (French fish stew) and blancmange (a pink or white dessert that is rather like a thin pudding). Both have somewhat rich literary pasts: in Roman mythology, Venus used bouillabaisse to put Vulcan into a deep sleep, so that she could spend time with her other boyfriend, Mars. Blancmange has a mention in Chaucer’s prologue to the Canterbury Tales, and is the center of one of Monty Python’s more disturbing skits, in which blancmanges eat people, rather than the other way around.

  A Few Key Wizards at Beauxbatons

  The headmistress of Beauxbatons is Madame Olympe Maxime, who has a tanned, pleasing face but is indescribably large—clearly she has an ancestor who was a giant. However, Madame Maxime refuses to discuss this detail of her patronage because of rampant racism against wizards with giant blood somewhere in their ancestry. Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper who had a giantess mother, is smitten with Madame Maxime.

  Although Madame Maxime’s name could be construed to relate to her size, French for maximum is maxima, not maxime. Therefore, her name may, instead, refer to Hagrid’s vision of her: Olympe is translated to heaven (after the God Olympus), and maxime is French for maxim, which is a statement of general truth; thus, “true heaven.”

  Fleur Delacour is Beauxbatons’ most revered student; she is chosen from her school to represent Beauxbatons in the Triwizard Tournament (wh
ich is discussed later in this chapter). Fleur, like her peers, is beautiful and well-skilled in wizarding arts, but she can be less than tactful and often scorns and criticizes Hogwarts. Her first name, Fleur, is French for flower; apropos for her beauty. Her last name can be translated in a variety of ways; the most logical is beyond (dela) the princely court (cour), indicating that she is out of reach, or out of the league of, the boys at Hogwarts. She is one-quarter veela—magical creatures who seduce men with their beauty (see Chapter 2).

  Durmstrang Institute for Magical Study

  Whereas Beauxbatons students are beautiful, if a bit aloof, students and staff at Durmstrang are described as both unapproachable and unattractive. Although a co-ed school, boys dominate at Durmstrang, which gives every indication of being located in a cold, mountainous nation, given that students at Durmstrang wear fur capes and speak with thick Slavic accents.

  The most chilling aspect of Durmstrang’s curriculum is that professors teach the use of the Dark Arts, not just the defense against them, as is the practice at the other wizarding schools. Appropriately, when at Hogwarts, Durmstrang students sit at the table with Slytherin house, which has produced more Dark Wizards than any other Hogwarts house. Durmstrang’s approach is roughly the equivalent to teaching students in local high schools how to make bombs: what are the odds that all students will use that information for the good of humanity? Continuing this analogy, at Hogwarts, students would learn how to diffuse bombs and how to take charge during a bomb threat!