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Pottermore School of Magic
[HP Official Settings – Analysis of the Original Works] Summary of Magic Schools & Hogwarts
[This information is compiled by Yun Fei from Pottermore's official information.]
PS: All information has been hacked and deleted, thank you.
Rowling has announced the background story of the American Magic School of Elfhame. This is the second part of the "History of North American Magic" series. It will provide background information for Harry Potter's adaptation of the "Where the Fantastic Animals Are" series.
This famous North American Magic School was founded in the 17th century and is located on top of Mount Greylock. The school is enchanted with many powerful spells, making it invisible to those who don't know magic. Sometimes, it is only visible when surrounded by clouds.
The Origin of Ireland
Isolt Searle
Sayre was born c. 1603. She spent her early childhood in Comkally Vale, County Kerry, Ireland. The girl was the descendant of two pureblood wizards. Her father, William Searle, was the famous Irish witch.
Sayre was a direct descendant of the famous Irish Witch, Morrigan. Morrigan was a Beastmaster who could transform into a crow. William gave his daughter the nickname "Morrigan" because she was very close to nature since she was young. Isolt's early childhood was very peaceful and beautiful. She was loved by her parents, and her family often helped Muggle's neighbors in silence, using magic to heal humans and livestock.
However, when Isolt was five years old, her family was attacked, and her parents died in the disaster. An older sister long estranged from her mother- Gormlaith Gunter
Gaunt rescued Aesop from the fire. Gormlaith took her to the neighboring valley called Comcarly, also known as the "Witch's Glen", and raised her there. As Isolt grew older, she began to understand one thing: the person who saved her from the fire was actually the person who murdered her parents and kidnapped her. Gormlaith was violent and ferocious (like the rest of the Gaunt family). A fanatical pureblood wizard, she was convinced that her sister's help to Muggle's neighbors could lead to a marriage between Isolt and Muggle. Gormlaith also believed that only by taking their daughter away could the child "return to the right path": she taught the child that the direct descendants of Morrigan and Salazar Slytherin could only interact with purebloods.
Gormlaith thought that Isolt needed a role model, so she started with herself. Whenever a Muggle or animal came too close to their hut, she would cast a curse on them and force Isolt to watch. The neighboring communities quickly learned to stay away from Gormlaith's house. After that, the villagers who were once friendly with Isolt Isolt. Local Boys would throw stones at her playing in the garden, Isolt Searle's She was.'s only Isolt
Gormley had refused to allow Aesop to study at Hogwarts when she had received the admission letter from Hogwarts. She believed that it was better for Aesop to study at home than to go to a dangerous place filled with Muggles and egalitarians. However, Gormlaith had been a student at Hogwarts herself, and had told Isolt many stories about the school. Most of what she said was to slander Hogwarts and lament Slytherin's unfulfilled ambition to be a pureblood wizard. But to her niece, Hogwarts seemed like a paradise when she heard the words of an aunt who had isolated and tortured her to the point of madness. She had spent much of her teenage years weaving dreams about Hogwarts. For twelve years, Gormlaith had used powerful black magic to coerce Isolt into submission and cut her off from the outside world.
In the end, the girl had developed enough skill and courage to steal her aunt's wand (Gormlaith never let her have her own) and escape. In addition to her wand, Isolt also carried a golden brooch in the shape of a Gordian knot.
The brooch had once belonged to her mother. In this way, Isolt fled abroad.
Isolt was afraid that Gormlaith would use her amazing tracking spells and seek revenge, so she moved to England first, but Gormlaith soon followed. In order to get rid of her foster mother completely and not let her find her, Isolt cut off her long hair. She disguised herself as a Muggle boy and took the name Elias Storey.
Story.
In 1620, she boarded the Mayflower for the New World. Isolt landed with the first Muggle settlers in America. (In the American wizarding world, Muggles were called No-Maj, meaning they had no magic.) Once in America, Aesop vanished into the surrounding mountains, leading her shipmates to believe that Elias Story had perished, like so many others, in the harsh winter. Isolt left the new colony partly because she was afraid that Gormlaith would discover her whereabouts, even though she was already in the New World. Another reason was that on her journey on the Mayflower, she found that as a witch, it was almost impossible to be friends with the Puritans.
In a harsh and unfamiliar country, Isolt was completely alone. As far as she knew, there were no other wizards within a hundred miles. Gormlaith's one-sided education did not include any information about the native wizards of North America. However, after spending a few weeks in the mountains, she encountered two magical creatures that she had never noticed before.
Hidebacks were nocturnal ghosts that lived in the forest and survived by preying on humans and other humanoids. As the name suggested, the Stealth Monster could distort its body and hide behind almost any object. When encountering a predator or prey, it could perfectly hide itself. Muggles knew about Hidebacks, but they were no match for them. Only witches or wizards had a chance of surviving an attack by Hidebacks.
Goblins (Pukwudgie) were also native to North America. They were very short, had gray skin and long ears, and were distantly related to the European goblins. Goblins were very capable of moving alone. They were cunning, possessed powerful magic, and did not like humans (whether wizards or Muggle) very much. Goblins hunted with deadly bows and arrows, and loved to play tricks on humans.
Once, the two creatures met in the forest. The Hidebacks, who were unusually strong and large, successfully captured a young and inexperienced goblin. Isolt bumped into them just as the Hidebacks were about to cut open the goblin's stomach. So Isolt cast a curse to drive the Hidebacks away. She did not realize that goblins were dangerous to humans, so she took him back to her simple house and cared for him until he recovered.
After the goblin recovered, he declared his loyalty to Isolt and said that he would serve her until he had a chance to repay the favor he owed her. He thought that owing a favor to the young witch was a great humiliation to him, especially since the witch was stupid enough to wander around in a strange place where goblins or Hidebacks could attack her at any time. From then on, Isolt's life began to be accompanied by a goblin and his resentful complaints.
Apart from the goblin's disdainful attitude towards her, Isolt found him very interesting and even liked his company. As time passed, they cultivated a friendship, and such a friendly relationship between the two races could be said to be unprecedented. In order to abide by the goblin's taboo, he refused to tell Isolt his real name. Aesop therefore helped to give him the nickname "William" after her father.
Long-horned Water Snake
William introduced Isolt to the magical creatures he was familiar with. Together, they trekked around and observed Frog-headed dragons.
Hodags hunted, fought with Mountain Tyrannosaurus (Snallygaster), and watched newborn Wampus play in the dawn sun.
For Isolt, the creature that attracted her most was the giant Long-horned Water Snake (Serpent).
Serpent, an aquatic creature with a jewel in its forehead, lives in a neighboring stream. Although her goblin guide was very afraid of this beast, the goblin was surprised to find that the Long-horned Water Snake seemed to like Isolt very much. To William's horror, Isolt claimed that she could understand what the Long-horned Water Snake was saying to her.
Isolt later learned not to mention to William her strange intimacy with snakes, nor did she tell him that she felt that the snake seemed to want to tell her something. She went to the stream alone, and never told the goblin where she was going. The Water Snake's message was always the same: "Your family is doomed, and only by making me a part of your family will there be a chance."
Isolt had no family, unless you counted Aunt Gormley in Ireland. She could not understand the enigmatic message of the Long-horned Water Snake, and later even decided that the voice was purely imaginary, and that she had made everything up in her mind.
(Attention everyone ~ Aunt Rosa is setting the stage for the rest of the story!)
Webster Boot
And Chadwick Boot
Boot)
Because of some tragedies, Isolt was finally reunited with her magic kind. One day, when she and William were foraging for food in the forest, there was a sudden shrill scream nearby. William shouted at Isolt to stay where she was, while he shuttled through the trees and nocked a poisoned arrow.
Of course, Isolt did not follow his instructions. She soon arrived at a small clearing in the forest and saw a terrible scene. The invisible monster that had tried to kill William earlier had succeeded in murdering two innocent humans, and the victims were lying dead in the clearing. What was even more frightening was that there were two severely injured little boys lying on the side. They watched as the invisible monster prepared to dismember their parents while waiting for death in fear.
The goblin and Isolt quickly took care of the invisible monster, completely destroying him this time. The goblin was quite satisfied with their results and happily continued to collect blackberries, ignoring the children lying weakly on the ground and moaning. An angry Isolt asked him to help her carry the two little boys home, but William was furious. He said the boys were as good as dead. (William's exact words were "as good as dead")
Dead, poof), and helping a human would violate the Goblin Creed, with the unfortunate exception of Aesop, who had once saved his life.
Isolt was quite angry at the goblin's callousness, and she told him that if he helped her save either of the little boys, she would be willing to repay him for his help. Because they were so badly injured, Isolt did not dare to use Transfiguration with the boys, but she still insisted on taking them home. Although reluctant, the goblin agreed to take the older brother, whose name was Chadwick, and Isolt took the younger Webb back to their home. As soon as they got home, an angry Aesop told William that she didn't need him anymore. The goblin looked at her angrily, and then disappeared without a trace.
The Boot Boys and James Stewart
Thus, Isolt sacrificed her only friend for the two little boys who might not survive. Fortunately, they survived. Isolt was surprised and delighted to find that they had magical abilities.
Chadwick and Webb's wizard parents came to America with their sons in pursuit of exciting adventures. The family wandered into the forest and encountered an invisible monster, which brought the journey to a tragic end. Coming from abroad, they were unfamiliar with the creature and mistook it for an ordinary Transfiguration Beast commonly seen in gardens. Mr. Boot wanted to play a trick on him, and things turned into the tragedy that Isolt and William witnessed.
For the first two weeks after returning home, the boys were so badly injured that Isolt was afraid to leave their side. Because she was so anxious to save the children, she could not bury their parents in a dignified manner. It was not until Chadwick and Webb were well enough to be at home alone for at least a few hours that she returned to the forest to build a grave for the boys' parents, who might one day return to the place.
To Aesop's surprise, when she arrived at the clearing, she found a man named James Stewart, who was a man named James Stewart.
Steward, who was also from the Plymouth Colony, was a young man. He had become friends with the Boots on their journey to America, and because he missed them after not seeing them for so long, he had entered the forest in search of them.
Under Isolt's gaze, James marked the names of the deceased on the grave that he had dug with his bare hands and picked up the broken wand that had been abandoned beside the Boots. He frowned deeply as he examined Mr. Boot's wand. The Dragon's Heart String at the core of the wand was exposed, emitting sparks. He waved the wand casually. Just like any chicken would encounter when using a wand, this wand would inevitably resist. James was bounced away, flew across the clearing, hit a tree trunk, and fainted.
James woke up in a hut made of branches and animal fur, and found Isolt beside him taking care of him. Because of the limited space, Isolt could not hide her magical abilities in front of him, especially when she still needed to brew potions to heal the Boots brothers and use the wand to hunt. Isolt intended to wait for him to recover from his concussion before casting Oblivion on him and sending him back to Plymouth Colony.
However, Isolt was also happy to be able to chat with another person of similar age who had previously established a relationship with the two Boots boys. James would also play with the boys while they were receiving magical treatment. He even assisted Isolt in building a stone building on top of Mount Greylock. He had been a stonemason in England, and after he drew up a design that looked quite feasible, Isolt spent only an afternoon turning it into reality. She named her new home "ilvermorny" after her birthplace, which was also the place that Gormley had destroyed.
Every day, Aesop swore that he would cast "Oblivion" on James to make him forget everything, but his fear of magic faded day by day. In the end, she had to admit that they had fallen in love and married.
The Four Schools
Isolt and James took in the Boots as their adopted children. Isolt would tell them many stories about the Hogwarts that she had heard from Gormley. The children were just like her when she was a child, full of longing for school, and often asked Isolt why she did not take them back to Ireland so that they could receive their admission letters. Isolt did not want them to be afraid of Gormley, so she promised the boys that when they turned eleven, she would help them get their own wands (the Boots' wands were too damaged to be repaired) and open a school of magic directly in their own house.
This proposal made Chadwick and Webb's imaginations run wild. Almost all of the brothers' ideas for a school of magic came from the Hogwarts, and so they insisted that there should be four schools. However, the idea of naming four schools after the four of them was quickly abandoned, because Webb thought that a school called "Webb Boot" did not sound like a winner. They each chose their own favorite magical creatures. The intelligent but temperamental Chadwick chose the Thunderbird, which could summon thunder and lightning while flying. The argumentative but fiercely loyal Webb chose "Wampus," a magical creature that looked like a jaguar, agile, strong, and difficult to kill. Isolt, of course, chose the long-horned water snake. She still had the habit of visiting water snakes, and she had a strange sense of familiarity with them.
When everyone asked James what creatures he liked, he was suddenly at a loss. As the only chicken in the family, he had never come into contact with the creatures everyone was familiar with. In the end, he mentioned the goblins, because his wife had told him many stories about the petty William, and they always made him laugh. (James really is a lovable character, hahaha!)
Thus the four schools of Elfhame were established. The four elders did not realize at the time that each of their unique personalities was revealed in the names they so casually chose.
As Chadwick's eleventh birthday approached, Isolt was at a loss because she did not know how to fulfill the promise she had made to Chadwick: to give him a wand. As far as she knew, the wand she had stolen from Gormley was the only one in North America at the time. She did not dare to take the risk of dismantling the wand to study its structure. She only knew that the two wands used by Mr. and Mrs. Boutte in the past contained dragon heart strings and unicorn hair. When she found the wands, these materials had already dried up and died.
On the eve of Chadwick's birthday, she had a dream. She dreamed that she was walking along a stream and encountered a long-horned water snake. The snake emerged from the water, bowed its head to Isolt, and let her cut off part of its horn. Isolt woke up and set out, walking in the dark, down the stream.
The long-horned water snake was waiting for her and bowed its head to her, just like in the dream. She cut off part of the snake's horn and thanked it, then returned home to wake James to help make the wand. (Thanks to James's stone and wood craftsmanship, the home was now more beautiful and warm than ever.)
The next day, when Chadwick woke up, he saw an exquisitely carved wand made of gum, with the horn of the water snake wrapped in it. Aesop and James successfully created a magic wand with extraordinary magic power.
The Founding of Elfhame School
By the time Webb turned eleven, the reputation of the magic school founded by the small family had spread like wildfire. Two boys from the Wapanang tribe, as well as a mother from the Narakan tribe and her two daughters, all came to Iffamoni, hoping to exchange the magic they had learned for the technique of making wands. All the making relied on Isolt's wand and James's craftsmanship.
A protective voice in Isolt's heart told her to keep the long-horned water snake's wand for her two adopted sons. (Attention, there's the foreshadowing again!) So she and James began using a variety of other wands, such as the hair of a leopard cat, the heartstrings of a tyrannosaurus rex, the antlers of a staghorn rabbit, and so on.
In 1634, the small family had grown far more than Isolt's family had imagined. As the years passed, the house gradually expanded, but not as quickly as the number of students increased. Soon, there were enough children for Webb to hold an intramural competition. But the school's reputation had not yet spread widely among the native tribes of North America and the English colonists, so no students stayed overnight at Elfhame. Only Aesop, James, Chadwick, Webb, and Aesop and James' twin daughters, Martha (named after James' late mother) and Rionach (named after Aesop's mother), would spend the night at school.
Gormley's Revenge
This happy and busy family did not know that a crisis was approaching them step by step. News of the founding of a new magic school in Massachusetts had reached England. Rumour had it that the headmistress had been nicknamed Morrigan after the famous Irish witch, but the name Elfhame alone was enough to convince Gormley that Isolt had secretly arrived in North America, married a pureblood Muggle, founded the school, and accepted anyone who knew magic, pureblood or not.
After Isolt stole her family's precious wand, which had been passed down for generations, Gormley went to Ollivander's, a shop she despised, to buy a new wand. To ensure that her nieces did not discover her arrival, she imitated Isolt's method of disguising herself as a man and crossing the sea to America on the Bonaventure. Even worse, she called herself William Searle, using the name of Isolt's murdered father. After Gormley arrived in Virginia, she continued on her way to Massachusetts and Mount Greylock. She reached the top of the mountain on a cold winter's night and planned to do the same thing to the second Elfhame. She would kill the couple who had ruined her dream of founding a pureblood family, steal her great-nieces (who were the last of the family's bloodline), and return to Witch Valley with the children.
The great granite building at the top of Mount Greylock came into view in the dark. Gormley cast a powerful curse on Isolt and James in the direction of the castle, forcing them into a deep sleep.
Then she hissed the words of Serpentine, the language of snakes. The wand at the head of the bed that had served Isolt wholeheartedly for many years trembled slightly as she slept, and then lost its effect. Having lived with the wand for so many years, Isolt had never known that it had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of the Hogwarts. He also did not know that the core material used for the wand was the horn of a Serpent, the king of snakes. At the time, the wand maker had instructed the wand to enter a deep sleep when given a specific command. This secret had been passed down through the generations of Slytherin family wand holders for centuries.
Gormley did not know that there were two other people in the room who had not been put to sleep by her spell, for she had never heard of the sixteen-year-old Chadwick and the fourteen-year-old Webb. Another thing she did not know was that the wands of the brothers had also used the horn of a Serpent. The two wands were not affected by Gormley's Serpentine. Instead, the magical wands vibrated with the ancient Serpent's voice. They sensed that their master might be in danger and began to hum in a way that sounded exactly like the warning of a horned Serpent.
The Boot brothers jumped out of bed when they heard the noise. Instinctively, Chadwick looked out of the window and saw Gormley Gunter's figure in the woods approaching the building.
Chadwick was like all children. He had heard and known far more than his parents could imagine. The foster parents, Isolt and James, might have thought that they had succeeded in protecting their child from the murderous Gormley's story, but they were wrong. When Chadwick was young, he had overheard Isolt talking about why he had fled Ireland. Unbeknownst to Aesop and James, Chadwick had often dreamt of an old witch sneaking through the woods to get close to the Iffamoni. Now he was seeing his nightmares come true.
Chadwick sent Webb to warn his parents and ran downstairs to do the only thing that made sense to him: he ran out of the castle to meet Gormley and prevent her from entering the room where his parents slept.
Gormley had not expected to meet a young wizard. At first, she had underestimated his abilities. Chadwick blocked her curses with practiced ease, and a duel ensued. Even though Gormley's magic was far more powerful than Chadwick's, she had to admit that this gifted boy had been taught well after only a few minutes of dueling. After casting a number of curses on his head in an attempt to subdue him and force him towards the building, Gormley questioned him about his family background, saying that she had "no desire to kill such a talented pureblood wizard."
At the same time, Webb was trying to wake his parents, but Gormley's curses were too strong. Even Gormley's shouts and the sound of her curses hitting the building could not wake them up. Webb decided to run downstairs and join the fierce duel outside.
The two-to-one duel made Gormley's situation even more troublesome. In addition, the Boot brothers' wands were made of the same material. When used together against a common enemy, their magic was multiplied tenfold. Even so, Gormley's black magic was still a match for theirs. The duel had turned into an abyss of fire. Gormley laughed and told the brothers that if they could prove their blood was pure, she would let them live. Chadwick and Webb, on the other hand, were determined to prevent her from approaching their family. Walls were broken and windows shattered, but Aesop and James remained asleep until the twin girls, who were sleeping upstairs, were awakened and screamed in terror.
Their screams broke the curse that had trapped Aesop and James. The chaos of the duel and magic could not wake them, but it was the girls' terrified screams that broke Gormley's curse. The power of love was beyond Gormley's comprehension. Aesop yelled at James to find the girls, while she rushed to help her adopted children. She gripped Slytherin's wand tightly.
It was only when Aesop raised the wand to attack the detestable aunt that she realized that even though the wand had helped her so much, it was now no different from a wooden stick she had picked up from the ground. Gormley felt smug. She forced Aesop, Chadwick, and Webb towards the stairs. Only then did she hear the cries of her nieces. Gormley finally reached the twins' bedroom. She blasted the door open and saw James standing in front of the cradle, determined to protect his daughters. Aesop couldn't help but cry out in despair. She was already incoherent, and the name of Aesop's murdered father could be heard in her words.
At that moment, there was a loud cracking sound. The moonlight in the room was blocked out as William the Goblin suddenly appeared on the windowsill. Before Gormley could understand the situation, a poisoned arrow pierced her heart. Her shrill screams could be heard for hundreds of miles. In order to make herself immortal, the old witch's blood was filled with black magic. The curse had a chemical reaction with the Goblin's poison. She began to stiffen and become brittle, finally shattering into a pile of gravel. Ollivander's wand fell to the ground and exploded. In the end, all that was left of Gormley Gaunt was a pile of sand, a broken wooden stick, and a charred dragon's heartstrings.
William had saved Aesop's family. However, in the face of their gratitude, he only cursed Aesop angrily, because he realized that Aesop had never called his name in nearly ten years. She only thought of him when her life was in danger. The clever Aesop didn't tell him that the William she had called out was actually her father. James was so happy to be able to see the famous Goblin that he forgot that the Goblins didn't like most humans. He gripped the confused William's hand tightly and told him how lucky he was that he had chosen to name one of the Elfhamermun Academies after the Goblins.
Many people believed that it was James's praise and gratitude that had softened William's heart. The next day, William and his Goblin family moved into the house. Even though they still complained, they still helped them repair the damage Gormley had caused. Then, William announced that because the Wizards were too weak to protect themselves, he decided to sign a protection treaty with them and take a large sum of money. He began to act as the school's private security guard and order protector.
Slytherin's Legacy
Ever since Gormley had used the snake language to command Slytherin's wand, the wand had remained unusable. Aesop didn't know the snake language, but no matter what, she didn't want to touch the wand again. It was the last memory of her unhappy childhood. She and James buried the wand in the ground outside the school.
Within a year, some kind of unknown snake tree grew where the wand was buried. No matter how they cut it down or destroyed it, they couldn't do anything. A few years later, people discovered that the leaves of this tree had powerful healing properties. This tree proved that there were pros and cons to everything. Not all the descendants of Slythrin were bad, and the same went for Slythrin's wand. Other than doing bad things, it could also do good things. And Slytherin's most beautiful legacy seemed to be here in America.
The Growth of the Elfhamermun Academies
Over the next few years, the reputation of the Iffamoni grew steadily. The granite hut became a castle, and as the number of students increased, more teachers were recruited. Now, witches and wizard children from all over America were sent to the Iffamoni, and the Iffamoni became a boarding school. By the nineteenth century, the Iffamoni had become internationally renowned.
For many years, Aesop and James had been headmasters together, and many students loved them as family.
Chadwick became a wizard who traveled the world and published seven books. The Magic of Chadwick, Volume I – Volume VII (Why does it sound so much like the Harry Potter series?) The Iffamoni adopted it as a textbook. He married Josefina Calderon, a Mexican healer.
She married Josefina Calderon, a Mexican healer. The Calderon Butte family was still one of the most prestigious wizard families in North America.
In the "United States Congress of Magic, the
Before the founding of the New World, there was a lack of enforcement of wizardry laws. Webber Butte later became the Enforcer, the modern Aura. While returning to London to repatriate an evil Black Wizard, Webber met a young Scottish witch working for the Ministry of Magic and fell in love with her. Part of the Butte family returned home to London, and Webber's descendants went to study in Hogwarts.
James and Aesop's eldest daughter was a dud. Although Martha's parents and brothers still loved her, living in the Iffamoni was quite painful for her, because she could not do any magic. In the end, she married the brother of a friend from the Bocomtuc tribe and lived as a chicken.
The twin sister, Riona, taught Defense Against the Dark Arts at the Iffamoni school for many years. Riona never married. Rumor had it that, unlike her sister, Riona was born with the gift of the Snake Tongue, and that she was determined not to marry to prevent the Slytherin bloodline from being passed down to the next generation. This rumor was never confirmed by the Aesopes. (The Aesopes in America did not know that Gormley was not the last of the Gunter family, and that there were other bloodlines in England — such as Old Foote and his elders.)
Both Aesop and James lived to be over a hundred years old, and they had seen the Iffamoni transformed from a small cottage into a granite castle. By the time they died, the school they had founded had become so famous that magic families all over North America were fighting to send their children there. They hired many staff, expanded the school, and cast advanced spells to protect it from the chickens. In short, the little girl who had dreamed of going to Hogwarts had now built her own school in North America.
Iffamoni today
Given that one of the founders was a chicken, the public might expect the school to be democratic. And so it was, and the Iffamoni school was recognized as one of the most democratic and egalitarian great magic schools.
Marble statues of Aesop and James were set up on either side of the main entrance to the Iffamoni castle. When the door was opened, one could see the circular hall with a glass dome above. On the second floor of the hall, there was a wooden balcony that circled the hall. Other than that, there was almost nothing else in the hall, only four other wooden statues representing the four schools: a horned water snake, a cat leopard, a thunderbird, and a goblin.
When the new students lined up to enter the circular hall, the rest of the teachers and students watched from the balcony above. The new students stood in a circle against the wall, and were called one by one to stand above the Gordy's Knot carved in the center of the stone floor of the hall. In the silence of all the teachers and students, everyone waited for the magical statues to react. If the horned water snake wanted to recruit the student, the crystal inlaid in the forehead would light up. If the cat leopard wanted a student, it would roar, the thunderbird would flap its wings, and the goblin would raise the bow in its hand.
If more than one school's statues expressed their desire to recruit a student, the choice fell to the student. This was very rare, perhaps once every ten years, and Seraphina Piqueri had encountered it.
Then she met one — all four academies wanted to recruit her. She was the head of the United States Congress of Magic for several years in the 1920s, and was the most prestigious witch at the time. She chose the Water Snake Academy.
Some people said that the four schools of Iffamoni were the epitome of a wizard or a witch: the horned water snake represented wisdom, the cat leopard represented the body, the goblin represented the heart, and the thunderbird represented the soul. Others said that the Water Snake Academy favored smart people who loved to read, the cat leopard academy advocated Warriors, the goblin academy was mostly for kind-hearted healers, and the thunderbird academy was mostly for adventurers.
The obvious difference between Hogwarts and Iffamoni was not limited to the sorting ceremony, although the two magic schools had many similarities. After the students were assigned to each school, they were led to a huge hall where they would choose their wand (or rather, the wand would choose its master). Until the abolition of the Rappaport Law in 1965, the North American magic world still had very strict regulations on confidentiality laws, so all children were not allowed to have wands before they went to study at Iffamoni. In addition, wands were not allowed to be taken out of school during the holidays. Only wizards and witches who were seventeen years old or older could legally carry wands outside of school.
The robes of Iffamoni were blue and berry red, a color scheme in honor of Aesop and James. Blue was Aesop's favorite color, and she had dreamed of becoming a student at the Hogwarts Ravenclaw Academy when she was a child; the red was from James' favorite cranberry pie. All students of Iffamoni would wear a golden Gordy knot to fix their robes, commemorating the brooch that Aesop found in the ruins of the original Iffamoni hut.
To this day, there were still many goblins working at the school, and their complaints were still there because they insisted that they did not want to stay there. However, many years later, the goblins still mysteriously haunted the school. One particularly old goblin would react to the name "William." Some people said that he was the goblin who saved Aesop and James, but he just laughed it off and said that if William was still alive, he would be more than three hundred years old. However, no one had been able to prove just how long the lifespan of goblins was. William did not let anyone wipe the marble statue of Aesop at the entrance of the school. Every year on the anniversary of Aesop's death, he would place a few May flowers on Aesop's grave, and whenever anyone carelessly mentioned this in front of him, he would lose his temper.
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