Notes

ILVERMORNY SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

✦ ┋ ABOUT

"The great North American school of magic was founded in the seventeenth century. It stands at the highest peak of Mount Greylock, where it is concealed from non-magic gaze by a variety of powerful enchantments, which sometimes manifest in a wreath of misty cloud." — Description of the school

Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the American wizarding school, located on Mount Greylock in modern-day Massachusetts. It accepts students from all over North America. Students of this school, as at Hogwarts in Scotland, are sorted into four houses.

When Newt Scamander travelled to New York in the 1920s, he met several people (including Porpentina and Queenie Goldstein) who were educated at this school.

✦ ┋ SORTING SYSTEM

There are four houses at Ilvermorny - Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie. When a student starts their education at Ilvermorny, they step onto a Gordian Knot on the floor in the centre of the entrance hall with large wooden statues of the mascots for the four houses facing them. The carved statues react if they want the student in their house. The older students watch in silence from a circular balcony on a floor above them as the new students are sorted.

However, sometimes more than one carving will try to select the same student and so the student is then able to choose the house they prefer. This happens very rarely. Sometimes - as rare as once a decade or even a generation as in the case of one student - a student will be selected by every house. Seraphina Picquery, who was President of MACUSA 1920 - 1928 is known to have had this honour. She chose Horned Serpent.

After the sorting, the student is brought to a large hall where they are chosen once more, this time by a wand. Prior to the end of Rappaport's Law, children could not have a wand prior to schooling and had to leave their wand at school during school breaks and could only take the wand out of school when they reached seventeen years of age.

✦ ┋HOUSES

1. Horned Serpent
➤ Sometimes considered to represent the mind of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Horned Serpent favours scholars.
➤ Founder : Isolt Sayre
➤ Notable Members : Seraphina Picquery

2. Wampus
➤ Sometimes considered to represent the body of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Wampus favours warriors.
➤ Founder : Webster Boot
➤ Notable Members : Webster Boot

3. Thunderbird
➤ Sometimes considered to represent the soul of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Thunderbird favours adventurers.
➤ Founder : Chadwick Boot
➤ Notable Members : Chadwick Boot, Porpentina Goldstein

4. Pukwudgie
➤ Sometimes considered to represent the heart of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Pukwudgie favours healers.
➤ Founder : James Steward
➤ Notable Members : Queenie Goldstein