Chapter Five –
Exploring Hogwarts and its Grounds
I, Bathilda Bagshot, have explored Hogwarts quite a lot, especially when I was a student there. However, I wouldn't dream of claiming I had explored all of Hogwarts, even in one doesn't count the secret rooms and passageways that exist throughout the castle. Those locations shall be explored in Chapter 8: Secrets of Hogwarts, but for now, we shall concentrate on the better-known locales of the castle, working from the dungeons upwards. The descriptions shall be as to how the rooms are seen in the present day, although if they have any noteworthy historic value, I shall, of course, mention that as well. The castle can only be seen by wizards, since it is well-protected by Anti-Muggle charms. Even if a Muggle manages to see what the real school likes like, they won't be able to take photographs of it since the air around Hogwarts is too full of magic for anything electronic to work.
Dungeons
The dungeons are found below the castle itself, and although they were once used to punish unruly students (usually by hanging them from their thumbs from the dungeon ceiling), they are now used primarily to teach Potions. However, the Slytherin common room is located here (as Salazar Slytherin himself spent a lot of time in the dungeons), under the lake itself. A password is required to enter the common room, (which is changed regularly, as all passwords in the castle do) and is accessed when a wall slides away.
The kitchens are also located in the dungeons, although in a much more warm, better-lit area. Because the founders of Hogwarts realised that students, if they knew where the kitchens were located, were likely to steal food whenever possible, decided to hide it well. Even to this day, the entrance to the kitchen remains hidden behind a picture of a fruit bowl; only when one tickles the pear at the right place will a door handle appear. The kitchens are, of course, ran by house elves, which prepare all the food for breakfast and various feasts and place them on four long tables to be magically transported up to their counterpart house tables in the Great Hall above. Though over a hundred house elves work in Hogwarts today, there were once a much smaller number. Perhaps the most famous house elf is Hooky, who lived in the fifteenth century and single-handedly prepared the start-of-term feast after all the other house elves had caught dragon pox and become ill. Hooky, however, worked himself to death and a statue of him now stands on the fourth floor.
Also in the dungeons is the Hufflepuff common room. This is mainly because Helga Hufflepuff, who was adept with her food-related charms, liked to be near the kitchens, but also because she was afraid of heights and refused to go further than three floors up.
Ground Floor
The Ground Floor, along with the dungeons, has remained relatively unchanged since Hogwarts was first built, and its rooms are not susceptible to the charm Rowena Ravenclaw cast that occasionally causes the rooms and staircases to move around. The Entrance Hall is, of course, the first room one will come across when entering Hogwarts. The giant hourglasses that show many house points each house has reside here, as does the great marble staircase that leads to upper floors.
The Great Hall can be found just off the Entrance Hall, and is where the students and teachers eat their meals, with four long tables (one each for the four houses, and another for the teachers). Originally, the High Table was on the same level as the students' tables, but when the tiny Alberic Alderton (who had goblin blood in him) became Headmaster, the High Table was placed on a raised platform so he could be seen more easily (and even then, he had to sit on a large pile of books). The ceiling is, of course, enchanted to mimic the weather outside, an enchantment first place on the room by Rowena Ravenclaw when Hogwarts was first founded.
Opposite the Great Hall is a corridor with several classrooms are usually unused, the staff room (which is protected by stone gargoyles), as well as the caretaker's office.
First Floor
The first floor has many classrooms on it, including the Muggle Study classroom, the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and the History of Magic classroom. Defence Against the Dark Arts has long since been one of the most popular subjects at Hogwarts, but since 1957, no teacher has ever had the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher post for more than one year, thanks to a curse Lord Voldemort put upon the position after Albus Dumbledore refused him a job at Hogwarts. Therefore, few wizards or witches wanted to teach the subject after a few years if they were offered, realising its poor background.
Second Floor
There are various teacher's offices on this floor (including the ones inhabited by the current Defence Against the Dark Arts), as well as Arithmancy and Ancient Runes classrooms, which are, of course, optional subjects students can chose to study in their third year. Arithmancy is the study of determining the magical properties of numbers, particularly the number seven, which is said to be especially magical. Ancient Runes is the study of runes and translating them into English. The entrance to the Headmaster's office is located here as well.
Also of particular note on the second floor is a girls' bathroom that is now very rarely used. It is where a student by the name of Myrtle was killed in 1943 when Tom Riddle (later Lord Voldemort) opened the Chamber of Secrets and unleashed the basilisk. The basilisk killed Myrtle, but she returned as a ghost and still haunts the bathroom in which she died to this day. I attempted to speak to her to learn more information, but she started crying and said I was insensitive so I decided to leave.
Third Floor
The third floor contains the Charms classroom (which is one of the oldest subjects at Hogwarts), as well as the trophy room (where any awards students may have received are kept), as well as an armour gallery and a statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor, in which there is a secret passageway that leads to Hogsmeade (see Secrets of Hogwarts). The third floor is also where the hospital wing is located. It was first added to Hogwarts when injuries from the Triwizard Tournament started getting too high to ignore. It is still used nowadays, but magical catastrophes and Quidditch injuries are still frequent occurrences at the school.
Fourth Floor
There are some unused classrooms on the fourth floor, as well as a passageway that leads out of Hogwarts; however, in recent years, it seems to have been blocked off. The library is also found on the fourth floor, and contains literally thousands of the books (including, I hope, the one you are reading now). Hogwarts has had a long history of librarians being very protective of their books, often placing enchantments and spells on them so they can't be stolen, desecrated or befouled in any way. The Restricted Section of the library was added in the 1800s to place books about the Dark Arts and very powerful magic; this was to prevent students getting wrong ideas about the Dark Arts or from performing illegal spells or concocting illicit potions within the school. Eating has been banned from the library ever since 1837, when a wand backfired and splattered food all over the H-J bookshelf, ruining dozens of books.
Fifth Floor
As well as several offices being located on the fifth floor (including the Arithmancy teacher's office), there is also the prefects' bathroom, which is accessible only by prefects, since only they know the password. It is very extravagant, comprised of a huge bath sunk into the floor. I myself happened to spend a lot of my time in here when I was a prefect at Hogwarts, although I was often distracted by an annoying and suggestive painting of a mermaid on the wall. Several statues can be found on this floor, such as the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, behind which a secret passageway out of Hogwarts can be found.
Sixth Floor
The Ancient Runes' teacher's office is located on the sixth floor, as can the Transfiguration classroom. Transfiguration was first taught at Hogwarts by Walter Kettlebridge in 1430, and has been quite a popular subject since then. Many of the Transfiguration teachers have been Animagi.
Seventh Floor
The seventh floor is home to the entrances of both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common room and dormitories, which are both found in towers. The Gryffindor common room is guarded by a portrait of the Fat Lady; the Ravenclaw common room is guarded by a portrait of the Thin Lady; they are said to be sisters, although neither have confirmed it. The Room of Requirements (see Secrets of Hogwarts) is also on the seventh floor, as is the office of the Charms teacher.
The Divination classroom entrance is located on the seventh floor as well, it being one of the last additions to the castle in the early 1800s. Divination is the art of foreseeing future events, although it is a very imprecise and sketchy branch of magic; very few people have the Inner Eye and are truly able to predict the future. It therefore has the lowest pass success rating of all the subjects in Hogwarts, and on more than one occasion, the Divination teacher as well has been found to be a fraud.
Towers
There are several towers at Hogwarts, including the Gryffindor tower, the Ravenclaw tower, the North Tower, which comprises of the Divination classroom (see above) and the West Tower, which is where the owlery is located. The owlery has been at Hogwarts for hundreds of years, and is where the Hogwarts owls reside for the majority of the time. Owls that belong to students often rest here as well. The Astronomy tower is the tallest tower and is where students study Astronomy at night.
The Headmaster's office is also located in a tower, although its entrance is many floors below. It is the home of the current Headmaster or Headmistress, and is protected by a stone gargoyle. The walls of the office are covered in the portraits of all of the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses, and are honour-bound to assist the previous Headmaster or Headmistress in times of trouble or need. The office was constructed by Damocles Philpott as the first Headmaster and constructed a large brass doorknob in the shape of a griffin because he had been a Gryffindor when he had attended Hogwarts. For many years, the Sorting Hat and Gryffindor's sword (both relics of Godric) have been kept in the Headmaster's office.
The Grounds
Hogwarts has large expansive lawns that stretch down to the Forbidden Forest. It is, of course, hidden from Muggle eyes, so that if a Muggle starts to come anywhere near the grounds, all they will see in a mouldy old ruin with a sign that says, 'DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE.' It has several greenhouses, where students can study Herbology, the gamekeeper's cabin, and, since quite recently, the Whomping Willow. The Whomping Willow was added to Hogwarts in 1971 to disguise a secret passageway from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade so that it wouldn't be found by students. It was used primarily by Remus Lupin, a werewolf, who went into the passage every month before he transformed so that he couldn't hurt anyone else.
The lake is another prominent feature of Hogwarts' grounds. It is very vast and deep and inhabited by a variety of creatures. The most well-known is the giant squid, which was added to the lake in 1470 by Walter Kettlebridge, intended to rescue any students who may have ran afoul of the merpeople that also inhabit the lake. In truth, though, the merpeople have lived in the lake for much longer. They are selkies, and maintain a small community at the very depths of the lake, having been apparently stranded there thousands of years ago. They very rarely come to the surface of the lake and are usually cruel to humans; an exception was in 1995, where they allowed students to dive into the lake during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. Grindylows (small water demons) also inhabit the lake, and are sometimes used as pets by the merpeople. The merpeople often chase away the giant squid whenever it gets too close to their settlement.
However, perhaps the most visited feature of Hogwarts grounds is the Quidditch pitch. Although it was transformed into a maze for the third task of the Triwizard Tournament in 1995, it is almost always used to play Quidditch. It was first built in 1614, and has been used every year to host the Quidditch Cup since then. There has only ever been one reported death of a student playing Quidditch at Hogwarts. His name was Edgar Clogg, and was killed when two Bludgers hit him at the same time, knocking him off his broom, plummeting to his death. This happened in 1770 when Norvel Blemish was Headmaster; he used Edgar's death as an excuse to ban Quidditch, although it was really because watching it gave him headaches. The ghost of Edgar Clogg still haunts the Quidditch pitch to this day.
(Those of you noticed Chapter 4 is missing, it's because I've lost it. I'll try and find it as soon as possible, and if not, I'll have to rewrite it.)