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After the events of book five, one can’t help but wonder whether Harry is really safe now in Privet Drive. Has the protection reached critical mass at this point, and are the risks beginning to outweigh the benefits? Obviously when Voldemort was Vapormort, and the most loyal Death Eaters were incarcerated in Azkaban, the protection held up very… Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories The Sahara is found in northern Africa, spans several large countries, and is by far the largest desert in the world. It is also a place where, historically, Quidditch referees have turned up after wizards had transformed their brooms into Portkeys. This little bit of… Read More
• Cities Famous for its seventeenth-century hysteria over witchcraft and witch trials, Salem is today a typical suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. There is still a witches’ institute in Salem, which Harry Potter saw when he walked by their tent at the Quidditch World Cup (GF7). Read More
• Islands   A subcommittee of sorcerers from Sardinia did something of historical relevance at some point in time, though we have no idea what or when. Nevertheless, the subcommittee was the subject of the lecture Professor Binns had begun when Hermione interrupted him to ask about the Chamber of Secrets… Read More
• Place Scandinavia is a region in northern Europe which includes Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, though this exact definition is somewhat flexible. It is specifically mentioned in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a natural habitat for the Bowtruckle, Horklump, and troll. Read More
• Schools School plays a big part in the story of Harry Potter as be became the Chosen One and faced Voldemort. Harry attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and there not only learned magical skills but also gained friends who became his allies in his quest against the Dark Lord. Read More
• Countries Scotland is a beautiful country located in the North of the United Kingdom and is part of Great Britain. It is famous for its lochs, its rolling hills, and its rain that makes everything green almost all the time. It is where much of the Harry Potter stories are… Read More
• Businesses, merchants, and shops Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop was a quill retailer located on the High Street in Hogsmeade. Hermione bought a black-and-gold pheasant-feather quill there in October 1995 (OP16, OP25). Read More
• Caves and vaults Inaccessible except by magic, this cave complex on the coast was visited by young Tom Riddle while he was on an outing to the coast with children from the orphanage (circa 1930). While there he terrorized two of his classmates, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop (HBP13). Many years later,… Read More
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Where is the Burrow—Harry’s second home (his first is Hogwarts, of course, not Privet Drive!)? Ottery St. Catchpole The books give the Burrow’s location as just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, but give no direct clues as to where this is. The similarity of the name to Ottery St. Mary, in Devon has… Read More
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Number twelve, Grimmauld Place is the location of much of the action in Chapters 4 to 10 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It is Sirius Black’s ancestral home, and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. This essay discusses its possible location, and also that of the Ministry of Magic. Read More
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The Hut-on-the-Rock holds a key place in the life story of Harry Potter.  It was here, on his eleventh birthday, that he encountered the world of wizardry for the first time since infancy. But where was it? The address on the letter brought by Hagrid in PS4 is not very helpful: Harry Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock,… Read More
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Where is Little Whinging? What sort of place did Harry Potter grow up in? The books in the canon give us several clues, mostly in Books 1 and 5 (Philosopher’s Stone and Order of the Phoenix), but beware . . . there may be a red herring! In Book 1, the first letter from Hogwarts (and presumably the others), is addressed to Harry in “Little Whinging,… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds There are seven known secret passageways leading out of Hogwarts that Harry learns about after acquiring the Marauder’s Map. Fred and George Weasley tell Harry that Filch knows about four of them, and they warn him against the other two (the one behind the… Read More
• Place Home of Kingsley Shacklebolt, this was one of the many houses set up as a safe haven by the Order of the Phoenix in preparation for moving Harry from number four, Privet Drive (DH3). Read More
• Buildings An impressive Art Deco building in New York City, Shaw Tower is the headquarters of Henry Shaw Sr.’s massive media business. It includes a busy newsroom, elevators, and and Shaw Sr.’s large penthouse office, which offers an excellent view of the city (FB). Read More
• Houses and addresses Shell Cottage is “a lonely and beautiful place,” and quaint seaside home to Bill and Fleur Weasley. It sits on a cliffside with a view of the sea and an airy backyard, and the sound of waves pulsate through the house (DH25). Located on the outskirts of Tinworth in Cornwall… Read More
• Place In Diagon Alley: Apothecary Eeylops Owl Emporium Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor (closed in 1996) Flourish and Blotts Gambol and Japes junk shop the Leaky Cauldron Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions Magical Menagerie Obscurus Books Ollivander’s (closed in 1996) Quality Quidditch Supplies Twilfitt and Tatting’s Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes WhizzHard Books… Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Rooms, chambers, and floors The sixth floor boys’ bathroom is where Harry and Malfoy duel, and Harry uses Sectumsempra (HBP24). It is not in a particularly good state; it has grimy basins and cracked mirrors (and isn’t improved by the duel). Read More
• Hogwarts castle and grounds The Slytherin dormitories are the rooms where students who are in Slytherin House sleep at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, located in the dungeons of the castle. Read More
• Schools Smeltings School is Vernon Dursley’s alma mater, and now the school which Dudley’s attends. The Smeltings uniform includes (PS3): maroon tailcoat orange knickerbockers straw boater hat knobbly stick for hitting things (and people) with… Read More
• Houses and addresses This brick row house is almost certainly where Severus Snape grew up, and then lived alone for most of his adult life. Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange sought him out here in 1996, when he made an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa that he would kill Dumbledore if Draco failed to… Read More
• Place Somerset is a county in the West Country of England, home to both Bath and Exmoor. It is also the home of the Modesty Rabnott Golden Snidget Reservation, and the site of a well-known disaster in the summer of 1996 when a group of Death Eaters, together with at least… Read More
• Place Locations in South America: Argentina Brazil Peru Patagonian desert, location of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup (Pm)… Read More
• Countries Spain is a country in southwestern Europe, steeped in history and famous for its beautiful scenery, its unique food, and its incredible cities. There was a baggage-handlers strike in Spain in the summer of 1995, which Harry heard about on the news (OP1). Majorca and the Canary Islands are… Read More
• Countries New Spain was the colony of Spain in the southern part of the North American continent much of which became Mexico in 1821. New Spain was established with the conquest of the Aztecs in 1521. Read More
• Streets, alleys, and lanes Spinner’s End is a street in Cokeworth, a dark industrial Muggle town in the Midlands of England (Pm). It is on this street that Snape’s house sits, and down which Narcissa Malfoy ran – with Bellatrix Lestrange in pursuit – to seek him out (HBP2). Severus, Lily and Petunia grew up… Read More
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Although Spinner’s End is probably not a real place in a real town, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s in an imaginary town in an area where towns of that type are found—just as Little Whinging is an imaginary town, but of a recognizably Surrey type. An argument has been made Spinner’s… Read More
• Schools St. Brutus’s is a boarding school, presumably somewhere in England, that we know absolutely nothing about aside from its name (and that might not even actually exist). We know the name because Vernon Dursley tells neighbours and relatives that it’s the school Harry attends, so they don’t wonder about his… Read More
• Towns A small village in Gloucestershire, England. The Potter family originated here. Read More
• Trivia The real village of Stinchcombe, where the Potter family originated according to the new information on Pottermore, is just over the hill from the town of Dursley in Gloucestershire. Read More
• Churches and graveyards A church in Godric’s Hollow. It is small, but “magnificent”, and it’s graveyard is purportedly very haunted (DH16, CC4.3). It provides a good view of Godric’s Hollow from multiple directions (CC4.8). The sanctuary has both clear windows that one can easily see through (CC4.9) and stained glass… Read More
• Mountains, hills, and landforms Located outside Ottery St. Catchpole, this is a nondescript hill with a few pieces of trash littered around it. It is where Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys met up with Amos and Cedric Diggory and caught a Portkey – an old boot – to the Quidditch World Cup (GF6). Read More
• Towns A small town in the Canadian province of Manitoba, Stonewall is home to the Stonewall Stormers, one of the most accomplished Quidditch teams in the world (QA8). Read More
• Schools The public high school serving Little Whinging, Stonewall High is the school to which Harry would have been sent had he never received his letter for Hogwarts. Dudley would not have joined him; he instead attended Smeltings, a private school (PS3). The uniforms for Stonewall High are a drab… Read More
• Buildings • Hospitals • Wizarding places A home for elderly magical folks where they can live and be looked after. They don’t have to have a reason to perform magic anymore, they get to do it just for fun. Read More
• Place Streets that are home to wizards: Acanthia Way Diagon Alley Grimmauld Place High Street Knockturn Alley Laburnum Gardens Spinner’s End Streets that are home to Muggles: Brockdale Bridge Charing Cross Road Grimmauld Square Magnolia Crescent Magnolia Road Privet Drive Vauxhall Road Wisteria Walk Alleys: alley behind the Leaky Cauldron alley… Read More
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There are actually about three hundred, it would seem, although there is plenty of debate on the subject. Here’s the evidence from the books themselves: There are more or less ten students (depending on the vagarities of the Sorting) in each House per year, five boys and five girls. There were twenty broomsticks lying… Read More
• Businesses, merchants, and shops According to the classified ads in one of Rowling’s Daily Prophets, somewhere in London is the head office of the Society for Tolerance of Vampires. The classified listing was searching for a witch or wizard to help run the candlelit office, with preference given to those with an allergy to… Read More
• Place Though hiding from Death Eaters usually meant little or no food was available, Harry and Hermione did manage one night to camp not far from a Muggle town, where Hermione snuck into this supermarket under the Invisibility Cloak to snag some spaghetti Bolognese and tinned pears. She didn’t steal the… Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories A county in England just southwest of London, Surrey is the location of Little Whinging, and thus is the county in which Harry grew up (PS3). Heaths, commons and woodlands abound in the area and much of the county is devoted to agriculture, while the market towns and villages… Read More
• Place     A beautiful country in northern Europe and part of Scandinavia, Sweden is well-known for having one of the highest standards of living in the world. It is the natural habitat of the Swedish Short Snout Dragon (including at least one Reservation), and home of… Read More
• Cities The Sweetwater All-Stars are a U.S. Quidditch team that recently gained international notoriety when they defeated the Quiberon Quafflepunchers after a five-day match (QA8). Sweetwater is a small city in central Texas, in the southern United States. Read More