Hogwarts, A History

Peeves is a very popular ghost (poltergeist actually) around Hogwarts because of his enjoyment in playing pranks. As mentioned before he was the servant of the Bloody Baron during his life so that is why only the Baron can control him. He loves playing jokes at all the students but especially at the first year students. You cannot have any real conversation with Peeves and if you try you will be the target of all his pranks for two weeks... day and night. The only time you can have a conversation with him is if you wish to plan some pranks around Hogwarts and want his help.

Another popular ghost is Moaning Myrtle. She resides in the third floor girl's bathroom. You can always hear her crying and there is always a flood. She is the victim of the first opening of the Chambers of Secrets.

Professor Binns is an old ghost who used to teach in the 1800s. Even after his death he continued to teach History of Magic class.

IV. The Birth of the Sorting Hat
Originally the pointed wizard's hat of Godric Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat was bewitched by all four of the founders of Hogwarts with brains and some amount of personality. It's function is to determine which of the four houses each new student will enter. It does so at the beginning of the start-of-term feast, when it is placed on a three-legged (sometimes four-legged) stool in front of the Great Hall. It then sings a long, rambling song of introduction, a different one each year but with the same basic information in it: how it was bewitched to perform the sorting and what the criteria are for the various houses. The first year students one by one place the Sorting Hat on their head. Within a minute, it loudly proclaims the house for which they are best suited. The hat is battered and old; it's patched, frayed, and extremely dirty. In order to speak and sing, a tear along the brim opens like a mouth. It speaks inside of the hat with a small, quiet voice to the wearer and it can read thoughts and respond to them. When not sorting students, the Sorting Hat rests on its stool in Dumbledore's office.

Chapter Five: Everything Else

I.The Forbidden Forest
To the west of Hogwarts Castle is a large, dark forest. This forest is strictly off limits to Hogwarts students. The forest is thick with trees--beech and sychamore--but there are paths, brooks, and some clearings. Off the path, the way is almost impassable, although people have moved through it and creatures as large as Acromantulas and a Ford Anglia have managed to get around. The forbidden forest is home to a wide and strange assortment of creatures. Anything wild and dangerous that needs a place to live is put there. The caretaker moves around the forest with respect but without fear. Any other person who has entered it, however, has emerged hoping never to enter it again. There are areas around the edges of the forest which are part of the Hogwarts grounds but which are out of sight of the castle. The caretaker's hut is located at the edge of the forbidden forest. The forbidden forest is sometimes referred to as The Forbidden Forest but more often as just "the forest." The creatures known to live in the forbidden forest are werewolves, Acromantulas, centaurs, unicorns, a Ford Anglia, a three headed dog, trolls,

II. Hogsmeade
Hogsmeade is the only entirely wizarding village in Britain. It was first created a while after Hogwarts was created because of many parents who didn't want to be away from their children for a whole year.

It's a picturesque village of little thatched cottages and shops. During the holiday season, enchanted candles hang in the trees. Hogwarts is located across the lake from Hogsmeade, and the Hogwarts Express stops at the station there to disembark the students at the start of term. A road runs around the lake from the station to the castle.

When you visit the village you can visit Honeydukes Sweetshop which is a candy store. It is rumoured that an entrance to one of the secret tunnels from Hogwarts is in the cellar under a trap door. Honeydukes not only sells a wide variety of sweets, they also make their own fudge and enormous blocks of chocolate.

The Three Broomsticks which is a great spot to drink butterbeer, although they also serve gillywater, mulled mead, red currant rum, and even cherry syrup and soda with ice and an umbrella. There are tables, booths, and a mirror over the bar.

Zonko's Joke Shop is a favorite place for Hogwarts students to shop. They carry "jokes and tricks to fulfill even Fred's and George's wildest dreams," including Dungbombs, Hiccup Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, and Nose-Biting Teacups.

The Shrieking Shack which is reputed to be the most haunted house in Britain, the Shrieking Shack gets its name from the terrifying screams and noises heard coming from it some twenty years ago. The Shack has been silent for years, but the reputation lives on. The windows are completely boarded up. Outside the house is a dank, overgrown garden. The entrances are all sealed. The Hogwarts ghosts avoid the place, saying that it's the home of a "rough crowd."

Dervish and Banges which is a wizard equipment shop, near the end of the High Street. Gladrags Wizardwear which is a clothier, with additional shops in London and Paris. The railroad station, where the Hogwarts Express ends its journey north from Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters, is located near the lake. A road extends from the train station around the lake to Hogwarts Castle.

The post office which contain at least three hundred owls, from Giant Grays to tiny Scops ("Local Deliveries Only"), wait to carry messages. They sit on shelves that are color coded, depending on how fast you want your letter to get to its destination.

III. The triwizard tournament
The Triwizard Tournament is a famous contest between the schools of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. It originated some 700 years ago as a friendly competition between the three schools. Each school took turns hosting the Tournament, which took place every five years. The judges for the Tournament included the heads of the three schools. The Triwizard Tournament consists of a series of tasks designed to test the champions in many different ways: their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and their ability to cope with danger. Cheating was also considered a normal, traditional part of the Tournament. The contests were extremely dangerous. In 1792, "a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage” and all three school heads were injured. As the death toll mounted, the Tournament was discontinued. Most Witches and Wizards have grown up only hearing stories of these great magical contests of years gone by. The Tournament was gone, but its legacy remained and all Wizard children are familiar with it. No one expected it ever to return.

However, Dumbledore saw the Tournament as an excellent opportunity to reach out in friendship to the other schools. The contest was reinstated during the 1994-1995 school year and held at Hogwarts. The Champions from each school were selected by the Goblet of Fire. They were Cedric Diggory from Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang, and Harry Potter, also from Hogwarts.

In order to make the selection of champions completely fair, the decision is left up to a very powerful magic artifact, the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet is contained in a ancient wooden chest which is encrusted with jewels. When the casket it tapped three times with a wand, it opens. The Goblet is then removed and set on top of the chest. The Goblet of Fire is a large, roughly hewn cup, filled to the brim with dancing blue flames.

Before the champions could compete, their wands had to be checked by Mr. Ollivander in a short ceremony. He examined each wand and then cast a simple spell. It is also the time for pictures and interviews to be taken.

The first task, is designed to test courage and daring. The Second Task, requires the Champions to rescue people who were dear to them. The Third Task, requires for you to get the Triwizard Cup. The first Champion to touch the cup would win the Tournament.
Though the Triwizard is a fun contest to participate in, it is also very dangerous.

IV. Celebrations and Holidays
The Start of the Term banquet. It occurs in the Great Hall and all the Hogwarts students and staff must attend. The decorations consists of thousands of candles, floating in midair; tables laid with glittering golden plates & goblets; velvety black ceiling dotted with stars, bewitched to look like the sky outside. There are a few words from the headmaster and there is the Sorting Hat Poem & Sorting cermony. Afterwards it is required to sing the school song in your favourite tune as there is no particular tune for it.

Halloween occurs in the Great Hall. There is a banquet then a ball. It finishes later on in the evening in the common rooms. Hogwarts student and staff must attend but it is not obligatory. If you do attend it is required that you dress up in a costume. The decorations consists of a thousand live bats fluttering from the walls and ceiling. There are also floating pumpkins.

Christmas occurs in the Great Hall with the students who stayed for the Christmas holidays. The decorations consists of festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls. There are twelve towering Christmas trees, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.

The end of the year feast occurs in the Great Hall with all the Hogwarts students and staff required. The Hall is decorated in the colors of the winning house team. There is a speach made by the headmaster/headmistress. Before students leave there are notes handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays.

V. Detentions
In years past, punishments for rule-breaking at Hogwarts were severe indeed. Teachers used to be allowed to suspend guilty students by their wrists from the ceiling for a couple of days. In the past punishment sometimes were beatings.

Nowadays, the punishments do not typically involve physical torture, but nevertheless they can be extremely unpleasant. Teachers are given the freedom to choose the type of punishment they mete out.

Punishments vary according to the nature of the crime. Some infractions result in points being deducted from the offender's house. For other more serious offenses, detentions are handed out. Teachers may assign detention tasks as they wish and some detentions have been actually dangerous. If a student refuses to accept the detention, they will be expelled. Large hourglasses show the number of House Points each house has accumulated.

Chapter Six: The Dark Cloud

I. Arguments
Salazar and Godric were great friends but had many different beliefs. In the past both could tolerate differences until Salazar went too far with showing his belief. Salazar believed that only students pure blood should be accepted into Hogwarts and to prove this he would be extremely unfair to students with some Muggle blood in their heritage. He would secretly beat these students and sometimes would expell them from the shcool. When the news reached Godric, this infuriated him. There were many arguments between the two of them.

This is an excerpt from Rowena Ravenclaw's journal who observed the arguments between the two of them very carefully.

"I cannot take it. All this fighting between the two of them. They keep screaming at each other all day and will not stop. They can't stop arguing and they always say the same things over and over. Godric is becoming more and more violent and challenges Salazar to a duel more frequently now. I wonder if they will stop arguing and start thinking of a solution............... They won't listen to Helga or me for a solution to resolve this quarrel."

The arguments continued for over two years and while this happened Salazar Slytherin created the Chambers of Secrets.

II. The Chamber of Secrets
The location of the Chamber of Secrets is unknown. The Chamber can only be opened by his true heir. It contains a monster that would finish his "noble purpose" of killing all the Muggle-born students at Hogwarts. His heir, did open the Chamber in 1943 and released the monster, a Basilisk. Harry Potter defeated the Basilisk in 1992. Slytherin was a Parseltongue. Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students: Parseltongue - resourcefulness - determination - a certain disregard for rules.

III. Salazar depart and return
Salazar finally left Hogwarts for three years which left Godric in a state of depression:

"Salazar has finally left. He had to leave because our arguments were growing worse but I never wanted him to leave. He is my friend and has taught me a lot. If I could I would find a way to bring him back but I know that no matter how hard I try to find a solution to resolve our argument nothing will work. He has already set his mind on what he wishes to do and no one, not even himself, can change his mind."

When Salazar returned three years later the arguments started once again which led to the death of both Salazar and Godric.

Chapter Seven: Just the Beginning
Over the years, many events has happened at Hogwarts. Everywhere you step is a piece of its history. You will be remembered at Hogwarts even if you do not do anything important. Be happy that once you enter Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry you'll be part of history.