Ever since Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling announced Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Rowling gave us more insight into the American Wizarding World, Potterheads across the globe have been lusting for more information. Until recently, not much was known about the North American Wizarding school, Ilvermorny. Many fans speculated that the school might be located somewhere along the Great Lakes, or in the Northeastern United States. Others have even gone as far as to suggest that the school is a moving castle or located on a ship.
However, an engineer who was being very naughty and rooting around the code on Pottermore, just may have let us in on a huge secret about Ilvermorny. The engineer discovered a javascript file that runs the sorting quizzes on the site, and the specific quiz that they discovered referenced the “Ilvermorny Sorting Ceremony”. According to the code, like Hogwarts, Ilvermorny has four houses. But while the Brits of Hogwarts get Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, according to this code, the North American houses are Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie.
Um… yeah. If you hadn’t noticed, unlike the Hogwarts houses which are named after the school’s founders, the houses of Ilvermorny are named after magical creatures (a direct tie-in to Fantastic Beasts). So what exactly are these creatures?
The Wampus is “ variously described as some kind of fearsome variation of a cougar.”
The Thunderbird is “ considered a supernatural bird of power and strength.”
The Pukwudgie is “a two-to-three-foot-tall being from the Wampanoag folklore. Pukwudgies’ features resemble those of a human, but with enlarged noses, fingers and ears. Their skin is described as being a smooth grey, and at times has been known to glow.”
The Horned Serpent “appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans… associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and/or thunder. Horned Serpents were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of North American prehistory.”
Considering how terribly received J.K. Rowling’s History of Magic in North America was, we are hoping that these houses aren’t set in stone. It furthers the insensitivity to Native American Culture. We’re hoping that by the time the history of Ilvermorny is revealed, its Houses will be based on some famous North American witches and wizards.
