#7 - Ilvermorny
Credit: Kurt Oblak
Welcome to Back to School! Each edition of this blog will focus on the major wizarding schools of the world, with our seventh edition exploring Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The major school of North America, you'll find that Ilvermorny has a lot in common with Hogwarts - because it was founded by a descendant of Salazar Slytherin! Isolt Sayre, after fleeing her home of Ireland and her wicked aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt, built a home at the summit of Mount Greylock in Massachusetts, where she lived with her husband, James Steward, and their adopted children, Webster and Chadwick Boot. The school was founded in 1627 and grew as time went by.
The school is well-known for its pukwudgie population, one of whom protected Isolt from Gormlaith and served as a protector after Isolt rescued him from a Hidebehind many years before. The Pukwudgies are said to complain and gripe, but still remain as the school's steadfast protectors.
In the 18th Century, one of the worst breaches in the Statute of Secrecy's history occurred when former student Dorcas Twelvetrees revealed the school's location to Bartholemew Barebone, the descendant of magic-hunters known as Scourers. This directly resulted in the passing of Rappaport's Law (which prevented any magic users from interacting with No-Majs) and led to Ilvermorny's tradition of giving students their wand when they come to the school, and locking them away during the holidays, as opposed to Hogwarts' more liberal approach to the law which gives exceptions for self-defence.
Students are Sorted in a ceremony akin to that at Hogwarts. They stand on a Gordian Knot and wait for the sigil of one or more of the four Houses to react. Students can be offered more than one House, at which point it becomes their choice where they go. The four Houses are Pukwudgie, Thunderbird, Wampus, and Horned Serpent and, like Hogwarts, the Houses are said to value different traits in their students - healers, adventurers, warriors, and scholars, respectively.
The uniform is blue and cranberry - blue because Isolt always wanted to be a Ravenclaw, and cranberry red because her No-Maj husband, James, loved cranberry pie. The robes were held with a golden Gordian Knot clasp, which was to represent the one Isolt found in the ruins of her childhood home, Ilvermorny Cottage.
Notable alumni of Ilvermorny include Seraphina Picquery (the former President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America), Porpentina and Queenie Goldstein, Chadwick and Webster Boot, Rionach Steward, Eulalie Hicks, Holly Blackbird, and Ruby Honeysuckle.
Did you learn something new about Ilvermorny? Are you excited for our final edition of the blog next week? Let us know in the comments!
