Hogwarts is quite the place to learn your way around. It’s hard to hold students accountable for arriving at classes late when hundreds of staircases along the way like to change. Not all classes even take place in the castle, or in a classroom. Consider all the times Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to go to Care of Magical Creatures down by Hagrid’s hut in the cold and the snow. Potions may not have been the most fun classes, but there’s something to be said for its always being in the same place, and always being out of the weather.
Still, there are some funny details and facts to be said for every classroom at Hogwarts, it seems, especially if you’ve read the books.
There’s More Than One Greenhouse
Herbology, with Hufflepuff head of house, Professor Sprout, holds her classes outside the castle proper.
She doesn’t have students stand out in the rain or cold as they are forced to during Care of Magical Creatures, but that doesn’t mean Herbology always takes place in the same spot. There are a number of greenhouses on the Hogwarts grounds that students use throughout their seven years of study. As Professor Sprout says in the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “Welcome to greenhouse three, second years.” I bet the students are just glad to have made it to the right place on time.
Defense Against the Dark Arts on the Third Floor
Defense Against the Dark Arts has a constantly rotating faculty, but it’s pretty consistent in its location. Students are expected in the DADA classroom on the third floor no matter which professor is leading them.
In the films, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom has changing decor depending on the professor, from Lockhart’s own portraits to Lupin’s record player. One detail that doesn’t change? There is always a dragon skeleton hanging from the ceiling above the heads of the hard-working students.
Divination Class is in the North Tower
In the movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, director Alfonso Cuaron makes it clear that Divination class is quite the trek up into a tower. But, there is a small detail Cuaron leaves out from the books.
In the books, Divination class is not only held high in a tower, but it is also only possible to access the classroom through a trap door. That’s right, just to attend this less than popular class students must wait in line to ascend (or descend) a ladder, one by one, before they are able to start unfogging the future.
Potions Class Fountain
Potions class takes place in the dungeons of Hogwarts. It makes sense because it’s easier for Potions Professor, and Head of Slytherin House, Professor Snape if everything he needs access to is on the same floor.
While cauldrons and ingredients line the class in both the books and the films, one might assume safety and cleanliness are not essential to either potion making or to Professor Snape. That’s not technically true. In one corner of the dungeon classroom, there always stands a basin with ice-cold water constantly flowing from a gargoyle’s mouth.
History of Magic Can Never Change its Location
The History of Magic classroom is located on the fourth floor of Hogwarts school. Even if Professors were ever encouraged to change classrooms just for fun History of Magic would be stuck no matter what was requested.
Professor Binns is the only professor who is a ghost, having fallen asleep and died only to “rise” the next morning and go to his class as usual. If death could not keep Binns from his class and his classroom, there’s no way an order or suggestion could possibly make his change his habits now.
There is a Blackboard in the History of Magic Room
In Professor Binns’ much loved History of Magic Classroom, there is a blackboard. It’s not that Binns can use the blackboard, or even that he tries (he simply drones really, with little regard for the interest of his students), it’s only that Binns is known for gliding through the blackboard to enter his classroom regularly.
This has often been cited as the most interesting part of the class, though there is very little competition for the title.
Dementors in The History of Magic Room
While the films would have you think that Harry learned to fight dementors by using a boggart and the instruction of Professor Lupin in the Astronomy Tower, in the books Lupin takes over the History of Magic classroom to instruct Harry in the Patronus charm.
This makes a bit more sense since, even with the aid of chocolate, it’s probably not wise to take on an enormous amount of winding stairs after struggling to fight off a dementor, boggart version or otherwise.
Divination Divided by Two
Fans of the books and the films will remember that in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Divination professor, Professor Trelawney, is fired from her position by Professor Umbridge.
In the books, however, Dumbledore hires a replacement, namely Firenze the Centaur. Firenze, being a Centaur, struggles a bit with stairs, so he does not use the trapdoor room in the tower, but rather teaches on the ground floor of the school, in a special classroom designed by Professor Dumbledore, to mimic a forest and even the night sky.
O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. Exams
While the regular end of year exams (when they are not canceled by Professor Dumbledore) take place in each class in their respective classrooms. The more prestigious O.W.L. exams in the fifth year are organized and taken in the Great Hall.
This way all fifth-year students can take them at one time and visiting administrators can more easily observe. N.E.W.T. exams are also offered in the same style later on.
Outdoor Star Gazing
Like Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy classes take place outside. They don’t take place on the grounds, but in the Astronomy Tower. While the Astronomy Tower in the films shows an indoor space, classes in the books are taken outdoors.
The top of the tower is surrounded by ramparts, giving students something to lean their telescopes against, as well as to keep them from falling as they try to study the night sky.
