RAVENCLAW

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional boarding school of magic in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. It is the primary setting for the first six novels and films and also serves as a major setting in the larger Wizarding World media franchise. In the novels, Hogwarts is described as a coeducational, secondary boarding school that enrolls children from ages eleven to eighteen. According to Rowling, any child in Britain who shows magical ability is invited to attend the school. The Wizarding World website states that Hogwarts was founded in the Highlands of Scotland sometime between the 9th and 10th century by the wizards Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Rowling has offered varying accounts of how many students are enrolled at Hogwarts at any given time. In a 1999 interview, Rowling said she envisioned Hogwarts as a place that offers security to the orphaned Harry Potter. She said that she made Hogwarts a boarding school because many important plot events occur at night. Several writers have suggested that Rowling took the name "Hogwarts" from the 1954 book How to Be Topp by Geoffrey Willans; the book describes a fictional play titled "The Hogwarts" and a fictional school headmaster named "Hoggwart". Rowling, however, said she may have unknowingly derived the name "Hogwarts" from the name of the hogwort plant. The word "hogwarts" also appears once in the 1939 novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.