Ilvermorny Ideas

Arriving at Ilvermorny

Ilvermorny has the reputation of being one of the most democratic, least elitist of all the great wizarding schools.

Marble statues of Isolt and James flank the main doors of Ilvermorny. The doors open into a circular room topped by a glass cupola. A wooden balcony runs around the room one floor above. Otherwise the space is empty except for four enormous wooden carvings representing the houses.

The Horned Serpent, the Wampus, the Thunderbird, and the Pukwudgie. While the rest of the students watch from above, new students file into the round entrance hall. They stand around the walls and one by one, are called to stand on the symbol of the Gordian Knot set in the middle of the stone floor.

In silence, the school then waits for the enchanted carvings to react. If the Horned Serpent wants the student, the crystal set into its forehead will light up. If the Wampus wants the student, it roars. The Thunderbird signifies its approval by batting its wings, and the Pukwudgie will raise its arrow into the air.

Should more than one carving signify its wish to include the student in its house, the choice rests with the student. Very rarely, perhaps once a decade, a student is offered a place in all four houses. Seraphina Picquery, president of MACUSA 1920-1928, was the only witch of her generation so honored, and she chose Horned Serpent.

The sorting ceremony is not the only major difference between Hogwarts and Ilvermorny (though in so many ways he schools resemble each other). Once students have allocated a house, they are led into a large hall where they select (or are selected by) a wand. Until the 1965 repeal of Rappaport's law, which enforced very strict conformity with the statute of secrecy, no child was allowed a wand until they arrived at Ilvermorny. Wands had to be left at Ilvermorny during vacations and only upon attaining 17 years of age was the witch or wizard legally allowed to carry a wand outside school.

The robes of Ilvermorny are blue and cranberry. The colors honor Isolt and James. Blue, because it was Isolt's favorie coclor and because she had wished to be in Ravenclaw house as a child. And cranberry, in honor of James' love of cranberry pie. All Ilvermorny student robes are fastened by a Gordian Knot, in memory of the broach Isolt found in the ruins of the original Ilvermony cottage.

A number of Pukwudies continue to work at the school into present day, all grumbling, all of them insisting that they have no wish to remain there and yet all of them mysteriously present year after year. There is one particular aged creature who answers to the name of "William". He laughs at the idea that he is the original William who saved Isolt and James' lives, pointing out that the first William would be over 300 years old had he survived. However, nobody has ever found out exactly how long Pukwudgies live. William refuses to let anybody polish the marble statue of Isolt at the entrance of the school, and on the anniversary of her death every year he may be seen laying mayflowers on her tomb, something that puts him in a particular bad temper if anyone is tactless enough to mention it.