While waiting for Hogwarts Legacy, discover how Hogwarts was created!

news culture While waiting for Hogwarts Legacy, discover how Hogwarts was created!

The Founding Fathers

When Harry and his friends first step onto the steps of Hogwarts, the school of wizardry has a good millennium. Its supposed construction date is indeed 990, in the middle of the Middle Ages. We are then at a time when Muggles are absolutely aware of the existence of wizards. Note also that it took 1692 and the International Code of Magical Secrecy for the wizarding world to become a hidden world of Muggles. But that does not mean that relations between the two peoples were healthy and friendly in the centuries that preceded it, quite the contrary. Frightened of wizards, Muggles persecuted and drove them out, long before the famous witch trials. Bathilda Bagshot’s book, history of magicrecounts in particular the numerous persecutions of which sorcerers have been victims, from the 900s to the famous International Code of Magical Secrecy.

It is therefore in this context that the Hogwarts school of witchcraft is built. And it’s not just about teaching the art of magic to future generations of wizards. It was indeed designed as a safe place for wizards, a haven of peace and protection invisible to the eyes of Muggles. And this idea came from the four greatest British wizards of the time: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Two very close wizards and two witch friends in life, each with their own temperaments and abilities, who came together to erect in a secret corner of Scotland a school that would become one of the most famous in the world: Hogwarts (Hogwarts in English). Where does this name come from ? According to popular belief, he is said to have come from a dream of Rowena Ravenclaw in which a pig (hog) covered in warts (warts) took her to the edge of a cliff. In French, warts of pork has thus changed into a similar pun: pou du lard. But let’s leave the questions of translation aside to return to our school.

It made the differences of its founders a strength. The idea was simple: allow students to flourish in a house corresponding to their profile. In Gryffindor, we value courage and daring. Hufflepuffs are loyal and good. On the Ravenclaw side, we find the most intelligent and creative students. Slytherins, on the other hand, are as cunning as they are ambitious, with a hint of rebelliousness. Each house has its own emblem, its own headmaster and its own common room. And to choose who goes where, it was not on the Sorting Hat that we counted but on the judgment of the founders. The question of the Sorting Hat arose when the four wizards began to think about how the school might well proceed once its founders died. Godric Gryffindor then got rid of his hat which was enchanted to become the Sorting Hat that we know.

Hogwarts also has an emblem, bringing together the animals of its four houses, but also a motto (“Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus”/“Do not tickle a sleeping dragon”) and a short hymn. Quickly, its range of courses widens and Hogwarts acquires a staff more and more provided, with in particular the eternal janitor, there to counter the sneak attacks of the poltergeist Peeves (yes, he was there from the beginning). But apart from the few disasters caused by this petty little being, everything was going well in this school which, thanks to the fame of its founders, quickly made a big name for itself within the magical world. Except that internal tensions will darken the picture a little.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Bacon Louse

Teach us what we need to know,

Whether you’re young or old or bald

Or that we have marshmallow legs,

We want to have a full head

Until you get a migraine

‘Cause right now it’s donkey juice

Which simmers in our skulls

force us to study

Tell us what we forgot

Do your best, let’s surpass ourselves

Until our brains scream for mercy.

Hogwarts Anthem

The split with Salazar Slytherin

It only took a few years for Hogwarts to find itself faced with its first big problem. And it is not the least, since it will lead to the departure of one of its founders: Salazar Slytherin. The problem when you run a school with four people is that you don’t always share the same vision. Quickly, the parseltongue wizard is at odds with his colleagues. The reason ? He wants to ensure the purity of the blood of wizards and wishes that we no longer accept students from Muggle parents or Muggle/wizard crossbreeding. Except that the other founders are all against this idea. Even his close friend, Godric Gryffindor, opposes this idea, and is moreover the most vehement. Alone against everyone but uncompromising on this idea, Salazar Slytherin decides to leave school.

But as you probably know, he will leave behind a great memory. Without telling the others, he had a room built that would later be known as the Chamber of Secrets. The goal ? Hiding there a terrible monster capable of enforcing his will of a school “pure” and that only his heir could awaken. To our knowledge, this chamber was opened twice. Tom Riddle indeed released the basilisk for the first time in 1943, then in 1992 through poor Ginny Weasley.

Going back to Salazar Slytherin, his stances and his departure helped make his house the most disreputable in Hogwarts. This pureblood story has long remained very much tied to the house. So in 1992, the password to enter his common room was simply “pure blood”. Slytherins such as the Malfoys also shared this idea. But she wasn’t adopted by all Slytherin students. There are also half-blood wizards in their ranks, such as Tom Riddle, Severus Snape or Dolores Umbridge. Just as it is true that many malevolent and evil wizards grew up within Slytherin house, but there are also wizards deeply opposed to the use of dark magic such as Andromeda Tonks, Horace Slughorn and Leta Lestrange. This story of Chamber of Secrets has therefore been very detrimental to Slytherin. But it also showed that the castle is full of secrets.

“What if I’m in Slytherin?”

The question he had whispered was meant only for his father. Harry knew that only the moment of departure could force Albus to reveal how deep and sincere his fear was. Harry crouched down, his son’s face a little above his. Of Harry’s three children, Albus was the only one with Lily’s eyes.

“Albus Severus,” he said.

He spoke quietly so no one could hear him except Ginny. She had the tact to pretend not to listen, waving at Rose who had boarded the train.

“Your two first names were given to you,” Harry continued, in remembrance of two Headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I had ever met.

“But just tell me…

“…if that were the case, then Slytherin would gain an excellent student, wouldn’t it?” It doesn’t matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you can choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat will take your preferences into account.

– Really ?

“That’s what happened to me,” said Harry.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hogwarts, a magical castle

Hogwarts doesn’t just use magic to protect itself from Muggles or malevolent intrusions. The castle exists thanks to magic. Without it, it could not have been erected in such a short time of course and whole parts also depend directly on it (like the stairs or the Room of Requirement for example). In fact, it is full of diverse and varied sources of magic. As we have seen, the school was built to be a place of protection. This was the case for persecuted sorcerers, it has become so for sources of magic as extraordinary as they are dangerous, ranging from the Philosopher’s Stone to the Mirror of Erised. But these are not the only secrets the castle has. Between secret passages and hidden rooms, there is plenty to do at Hogwarts (especially since there are certainly others to discover). Moreover, there are many unanswered questions.

Answering them, or at least unraveling some mysteries, is moreover one of the promises ofHogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy. Indeed, the plot around our protagonist should take us on the trail of the legacy of Hogwarts and its secrets. We are also told of an ancient magic that slumbers within us. And you can imagine that if we find ourselves playing one or a fifth year who has just joined Hogwarts (atypical course), it is not for nothing. Maybe it’s time to finally uncover the secrets that Albus Dumbledore didn’t want Tom Riddle to be able to unlock. In the books, we learned that it was for fear that they would unearth the magical secrets still untapped from Hogwarts that he had refused him the position of professor of defense against the dark arts. The few clues we have so far point to vestiges left by Merlin and Morgana. But the principle of a secret is that you don’t fully know what it’s all about until it has been fully unearthed. To finally discover the links between Hogwarts is the ancient magic, we will have to wait until February 10.