80 Fun Facts About Ilvermorny

Ilvermorny stands hidden on the highest peak of which mountain, itself the tallest in its state?

Mount Greylock is where Isolt turned a design by James, a No-Maj stonemason, into a stone house in a single afternoon.

Disguised as a Muggle boy called Elias Story, Isolt Sayre crossed to the New World aboard which ship?

The Mayflower carried her among the Pilgrims of 1620, and once she vanished into the mountains her shipmates assumed 'Elias Story' had died in the first harsh winter.

Which two colours are Ilvermorny's robes, chosen to honour the founders Isolt Sayre and James Steward?

Blue and cranberry recall Isolt's childhood wish to be a Ravenclaw and James's love of cranberry pie, a pairing no Hogwarts house wears.

What shape is the gold clasp fastening every Ilvermorny robe, recalling a brooch Isolt found in her ruined birthplace?

A Gordian Knot brooch of her mother's was the only thing besides a stolen wand that Isolt carried out of Ireland, and the same knot is set into the entrance-hall floor where new students are sorted.

Seraphina Picquery, MACUSA's president in the 1920s, belonged to which house, the one representing the mind?

The Horned Serpent, said to favour scholars, was Isolt's own choice, named for the river creature she felt a strange kinship with and whose horn went into the school's first wand.

Argumentative but loyal Webster Boot named his house after a panther-like beast almost impossible to kill; which house?

Wampus stands for the body and favours warriors, and its wooden carving roars when it wants a new student.

Which house did intelligent but often temperamental Chadwick Boot name after his favourite magical beast?

Thunderbird represents the soul and favours adventurers, and its carving beats its wings to claim a student at the sorting.

Which house did Isolt's No-Maj husband James name for the grumbling creature whose antics made him laugh?

Pukwudgie represents the heart and favours healers, a fitting pick for the only founder who could not consort with magical creatures himself.

Isolt Sayre christened the stone house that grew into the school 'Ilvermorny' after what?

The cottage where she was born had been destroyed by her aunt Gormlaith, and the new house on the mountain was raised by magic in a single afternoon from James's design.

Isolt Sayre's stolen family wand, cored with a fragment of Basilisk horn, had belonged to which Hogwarts founder?

Salazar Slytherin had taught the wand to 'sleep' on command, a secret handed down the Gaunt line that Isolt never learned, which is how her aunt later disabled it.

What name, her murdered father's, did Isolt give the grey-faced creature she nursed back to health in the forest?

William refused to reveal his true name and grumbled along at Isolt's heels, and an ancient creature answering to the same name still grumbles around the school today.

Which nocturnal forest spectre killed the Boot boys' parents, who had mistaken it for a common Boggart?

The Hidebehind can contort itself to hide behind almost any object, and only a witch or wizard is likely to survive an attack; Mr Boot's attempt to ridicule it proved fatal.

Martha, the elder of Isolt's twin daughters, found life at a magic school painful because she was what?

A Squib born to the school's first family, Martha eventually married a non-magical man from the Pocomtuc tribe and lived as a No-Maj, while her twin Rionach stayed on to teach.

What kept Ilvermorny students' wands at school during vacations until 1965?

Rappaport's Law was passed in 1790 after a besotted witch told a No-Maj the secret addresses of MACUSA and Ilvermorny; under it nobody could legally carry a wand outside school before seventeen.

If more than one carving wants a newcomer at the Ilvermorny sorting, who makes the final choice?

The student themselves decide, as Seraphina Picquery had to when all four carvings claimed the future MACUSA president.

Straight after being sorted, Ilvermorny students are led into a large hall to do what?

They pick out a wand (or are picked by one), a real difference from Hogwarts, where pupils arrive already armed, though Rowling notes the two schools otherwise resemble each other in many ways.

What did Isolt intend to do to the concussed No-Maj James once he recovered in her shelter?

Obliviate him and send him home was her daily vow; instead his fear of magic faded until it seemed simplest to admit they were in love.

On which website did fans first sort themselves into an Ilvermorny house, the day Rowling's founding story appeared?

Pottermore launched the Ilvermorny Sorting Ceremony alongside the story on 28 June 2016, and the site was later absorbed into what is now HarryPotter.com.

Which film gave Ilvermorny its first on-screen mention?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1926 New York, and Rowling published her Ilvermorny history five months before its release to introduce American wizardry.

How do the enchantments hiding Ilvermorny from non-magic eyes sometimes show themselves on the peak?

A wreath of misty cloud sometimes betrays the enchantments hiding the school, which Isolt and James lived to see grow from their stone house on the peak into a granite castle.

Isolt's father nicknamed her after which ancestor, a famous Irish witch whose Animagus form was a crow?

Morrigan, the crow-witch of Irish legend, was honoured in the nickname because young Isolt loved all natural things, and her parents quietly brewed cures for Muggle neighbours and their livestock.

Isolt Sayre was born around 1603 in the valley of Coomloughra, in which Irish county?

Kerry was where her early childhood was idyllic, with parents quietly helpful to Muggle neighbours, before her aunt carried her off to the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee.

Isolt's future husband James, like the ill-fated Boot family, had come from which New World settlement?

Plymouth was also where Isolt landed, but she slipped away into the mountains at once, judging a witch unlikely to find friends among the Puritans.

Gormlaith's curse left Isolt and James in an enchanted sleep; what finally broke it as she attacked?

Their twin babies' screams did what rage and magic could not, even as cracked walls and broken windows failed to rouse the sleeping parents.

Rionach, Isolt's younger twin daughter, who never married, taught which subject at Ilvermorny for many years?

Defence Against the Dark Arts was her post, and an unconfirmed rumour held that Rionach, unlike her sister Martha, could speak to snakes and chose never to pass that ancestry on.

Chadwick Boot married Josefina Calderon, a Healer from which country, founding a still-prominent wizarding family?

Mexico's Josefina gave the Calderon-Boot family its name, and Chadwick himself wrote the seven-volume Chadwick's Charms still used as standard texts at the school.

Webster Boot, an 'Auror for hire', fell in love with a young Ministry of Magic witch from which country?

Scotland was her home, and the match drew the Boot family back across the Atlantic, so Webster's descendants were educated at Hogwarts rather than at the school he helped found.

Having lost the family wand to Isolt, Gormlaith Gaunt bought a replacement from which wandmaker she despised?

Ollivanders supplied a dragon-heartstring wand that burst when she died, leaving only smoking dust, a broken stick and a charred core on the floor.

What killed Gormlaith Gaunt as she cornered Isolt's family in the twins' bedroom?

A poisoned arrow fired from the windowsill pierced her heart, and its venom reacted with her own Dark magic, leaving her as brittle as coal before she shattered.

When Gormlaith silenced Isolt's wand, what did the Boot boys' horn-cored wands do instead?

Both wands emitted a low musical note, exactly as the river creature sounds danger, because their cores vibrated to the ancient language and woke Chadwick and Webster to fight.

What flanks the front doors of Ilvermorny Castle, which open straight onto the circular sorting hall?

Marble statues of the founders Isolt and James stand either side, and one aged, grumbling creature at the school lets nobody else polish Isolt's.

Gormlaith refused to let Isolt take up her Hogwarts place, calling the school dangerously what?

Egalitarian was the charge, though Gormlaith had attended Hogwarts herself and her bitter stories only made the school sound like paradise to her isolated niece.

According to a 2016 tweet by J.K. Rowling, sisters Tina and Queenie Goldstein were sorted into which two houses?

Thunderbird and Pukwudgie fit the sisters' paths: the adventurers' house for Tina the Auror and the healers' house for Queenie, who worked in MACUSA's Wand Permit Office.

Which Ilvermorny teacher is in contact with Nicolas Flamel through an enchanted book in The Crimes of Grindelwald?

Lally Hicks and Flamel talk through phoenix-embossed books as Grindelwald's Paris rally looms, and she later joins Dumbledore's team in The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Disguised as a man under her murdered brother-in-law's name, Gormlaith Gaunt crossed the Atlantic on which ship?

The Bonaventure brought her ashore well south of the school, and she crept north to the mountain travelling under the name of Isolt's dead father, a wicked echo of her niece's own disguise.

Gormlaith Gaunt raised Isolt in the valley of Coomcallee, known in English by what name?

Hag's Glen lay next to the valley where Isolt was born, and the community soon learned to avoid it as Gormlaith cursed anything that strayed near.

Chadwick's eleventh-birthday wand, the first Isolt and James ever made, was carved from which wood?

Prickly ash enclosed the shard of horn the river creature bowed its head to give Isolt, after she dreamed of the creek the night before his birthday.

On her early trips through the forests, Isolt fought which dragonish creature and watched frog-headed Hodags hunt?

Snallygaster heartstring later became one of the wand cores Isolt and James used for other students, alongside antlers and hair from other native creatures.

The circular entrance hall where Ilvermorny's sorting takes place is topped by what?

A glass cupola caps the round hall, where newcomers line the walls waiting to be called forward while the whole school watches from a wooden balcony above.

Isolt and James named their twin daughters Martha and Rionach after whom?

Their two grandmothers were honoured: Martha for James's late mother and Rionach for Isolt's, who had been murdered by her own sister, Gormlaith.

Gormlaith Gaunt belongs to the same pure-blood family as Merope, the mother of which Dark wizard?

Lord Voldemort was born to Merope Gaunt, whose line carried on in Britain long after Gormlaith died. The American branch of the family believed the Gaunts had ended with her.

Which Hogwarts house had Ilvermorny founder Isolt Sayre longed to join as a child?

Ravenclaw was the house Isolt had set her heart on during twelve years as Gormlaith's captive. She never set foot in Hogwarts, so she ended up founding a school of her own.

In which language did Gormlaith Gaunt speak the single word that put Isolt Sayre's wand to sleep?

Parseltongue was the trigger, because the wand's maker had taught it to sleep on command. The secret had passed down his family for centuries, but nobody had told Isolt.

Isolt Sayre fled the 1620 settlers, sure a witch would find few friends among which religious group?

Puritans made poor company for a witch, Isolt decided during the crossing. She slipped away into the mountains and lived alone there for weeks.

The real mountain that hides Ilvermorny is the highest point in which American state?

Massachusetts tops out at 3,489 feet on the peak where J.K. Rowling put the school. Unlike the hidden castle, the real summit can be reached by a seasonal road.

Which famous long-distance hiking route crosses the real peak where J.K. Rowling hid Ilvermorny?

Appalachian Trail walkers go straight over the mountain, on a section opened in 1929. In the story, powerful enchantments keep the castle hidden from such non-magic eyes.

What finally killed Gormlaith Gaunt as she cornered Isolt Sayre's family at Ilvermorny?

A poisoned arrow through the heart ended her, fired from the windowsill by an old friend Isolt had not seen for ten years. Her scream was heard for miles around.

Chadwick Boot wrote seven textbooks, still standard at Ilvermorny, on which branch of magic?

Charms was his subject, and the seven volumes carry his own first name in the title. He grew into an accomplished, well-travelled wizard.

Seraphina Picquery, the Ilvermorny graduate wanted by all four houses, later held which office?

MACUSA President from 1920 to 1928, she was the only witch of her generation to be offered a place by every house carving at her sorting.

Gormlaith Gaunt, who snatched young Isolt Sayre from a burning home, was what relation to her?

Her aunt, the estranged sister of Isolt's mother, was behind the attack. Isolt only grasped years later that her rescuer had murdered both her parents.

Struck down at Ilvermorny, the body of Gormlaith Gaunt turned as solid and brittle as what?

Coal is what she became, because the Dark curses she had used to make herself invincible reacted badly. She then shattered into a thousand pieces.

Isolt Sayre's grey-faced, large-eared forest companion is a distant cousin of which European being?

Goblin kin they may be, but these American creatures are fiercely independent and wary of humankind. They also enjoy playing tricks on people.

What trade had James Steward followed in Europe, a skill that shaped the first Ilvermorny house?

Stonemason James drew up a workable design for a house on the mountaintop. Isolt then made it real by magic in the space of a single afternoon.

How did Isolt Sayre learn she could take a shard of horn from the river creature for a wand?

In a dream on the eve of Chadwick's eleventh birthday, the creature rose from the water and bowed its head to her. She woke, walked to the creek and found it waiting.

What is set into the forehead of the great river creature whose horn Isolt Sayre used in wands?

A jewel gleams in its forehead, and the creature's carving at Ilvermorny copies the detail in crystal. That crystal lights up when the house wants a new student.

Besides horn from the river creature, which of these did Ilvermorny's founders use as a wand core?

Jackalope antler went into the wands made for early pupils. Some protective instinct told Isolt to save the horn cores for the Boot brothers alone.

Which wand core lay charred in the dust after Gormlaith Gaunt was destroyed at Ilvermorny?

Dragon heartstring, a broken stick and a pile of smoking dust were all that remained. The wand was a shop-bought replacement for the heirloom Isolt had stolen.

Two boys from which Native American people were among the first outside pupils taught at Ilvermorny?

Wampanoag boys came to learn wandwork and shared their own magical knowledge in return. Every newcomer received a wand made by Isolt and James.

What grew within a year on the spot where Isolt and James buried the sleeping heirloom wand?

A snakewood tree of an unknown species rose there and resisted every attempt to prune or kill it. Its leaves later proved to have powerful medicinal properties.

For a hefty retainer in gold, what job did a clan of grumbling creatures take on at Ilvermorny?

Security and maintenance was the deal their leader struck after declaring wizards too dim to protect themselves. His kind still work at the school, grumbling all the while.

Isolt Sayre carried the injured Boot brothers home on foot because she feared doing what with them?

Apparating with two boys so badly hurt seemed too risky, so she walked. Her reluctant companion carried the older brother while she took the younger.

What was James Steward doing in a forest clearing when Isolt Sayre first set eyes on him?

Marking graves he had dug by hand for the Boot parents, whom he had befriended on the voyage over. Isolt had come back to the clearing to bury them herself.

How was the non-magical James Steward knocked out cold in the forest before Isolt Sayre nursed him?

A waved wand rebelled, as wands always do in non-magical hands, and flung him backwards into a tree. He had picked it up, broken and sparking, and given it a casual flick.

Which detail convinced Gormlaith Gaunt that the American headmistress was the runaway Isolt Sayre?

The school's name gave it away at once. Rumours about the headmistress's nickname had not been enough to make Gormlaith believe Isolt had crossed an ocean undetected.

Where did Gormlaith Gaunt land in America before creeping up on Ilvermorny one winter's night?

Virginia was her landing place, reached in disguise as a man. From there she travelled in stealth, meaning to seize Isolt's daughters and take them back to Ireland.

Which poor Ilvermorny student later betrayed the school's secret address to a magic-hating admirer?

Dorcus Twelvetrees let slip where both the school and the wizarding government were hidden. The scandal led to a law forcing total segregation from non-magical America.

Until a 1965 change in wizarding law, where did Ilvermorny pupils' wands stay during the holidays?

Left behind at school, by law, and no child even owned a wand before arriving. The rule enforced America's unusually strict wizarding secrecy.

From where does the rest of Ilvermorny watch as new students are sorted in the round entrance hall?

A balcony overhead rings the hall one floor up. Below, each newcomer steps onto a symbol set in the stone floor and waits in silence for the carvings to react.

The Ilvermorny house said to represent the heart is also said to favour which kind of wizard?

Healers are its speciality, by one saying, while the other three houses claim the mind, the body and the soul. Together the four are meant to make up a whole witch or wizard.

Which actress plays the Ilvermorny professor on Newt Scamander's team in The Secrets of Dumbledore?

Jessica Williams took the role of the teacher, who travels by Portkey with Jacob Kowalski and is handed a book as her part in the plan against Grindelwald.

The snowy profile of Ilvermorny's real-life mountain is said to have partly inspired which novel?

Moby-Dick owes a debt to the view from Herman Melville's house, where the snow-covered ridge looked like a great white whale's back. He dedicated a later novel to the mountain.

How did young Chadwick Boot learn about Gormlaith Gaunt, whom his adoptive parents never mentioned?

He overheard them as a small boy, when Isolt was explaining why she had fled Ireland. An old witch creeping through trees haunted his sleep from then on.

Fleeing Ireland with a stolen wand, where did Isolt Sayre hide first, only to be tracked down?

England was her first refuge, but Gormlaith soon caught up with her. Isolt then cut off her hair and took passage across the Atlantic under a boy's name.

What did Isolt Sayre's parents quietly make for Muggle neighbours, to Gormlaith Gaunt's disgust?

Magical cures for people and livestock alike were the couple's quiet help to the valley. Gormlaith saw such kindness as a step towards marrying outside wizardkind.

Ilvermorny castle grew out of Isolt Sayre's hilltop cottage and is built of which rock?

Granite walls rose as the cottage expanded year by year into a castle. By then the school was taking boarders from all over North America.

Part-founded by a non-magical man, Ilvermorny is known among wizarding schools for being what?

Democratic and far from elitist is how the school is seen. From its first years it taught settlers' and Native American children side by side.

What are the four enormous house figures in Ilvermorny's circular entrance hall carved from?

Wood, enchanted to move: one figure roars, one beats its wings, one raises a weapon and one lights up. Each is signalling that it wants the newcomer.

After helping Isolt Sayre kill the beast attacking the Boot family, what did her companion resume?

Picking blackberries mattered more to him than two groaning children, whom he called as good as dead. He carried one home only once Isolt agreed that would settle his debt to her.

By rumour, why did Rionach, a founders' daughter who taught at Ilvermorny, choose never to marry?

To end her bloodline was the rumoured aim, so that no child would inherit a notorious ancestor's gifts. Her family never confirmed the story.

What happened when Chadwick and Webster Boot turned their twin-cored wands on one enemy together?

Their power grew tenfold, yet even that only matched Gormlaith's Dark magic. The duel cracked walls and shattered windows as the brothers were driven back indoors.