An sometime Pottermore commodity revealing the pre-18th century bathroom habits of wizards has resurfaced.
In a tweet, the "Harry Potter" site reminded fans that Hogwarts "didn't ever have bathrooms."
"Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards just relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence," a tweet read.
We have questions.
Where does vanished excrement go? What do younger witches and wizards do? Do witches and wizards simply get out their robes on? How does this work if the Chamber of Secrets was built in a bathroom centuries earlier?
Pottermore, the digital site dedicated to articles and news from "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling, resurfaced a trivia fact about the wizarding world that near people wish they could unlearn as rapidly equally possible.
"Hogwarts didn't always accept bathrooms," the Pottermore tweet read. "Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence."
If you, like us, read this tweet shortly after it was shared on Friday (and hadn't previously encountered this old Pottermore commodity), then you lot spend the better part of your day mulling over its implications. We did the actress work for you and have outlined every question this not-so-fun fact has raised, starting with the most philosophical quandary of all.
Where does vanished excrement go?
For those familiar with the books, you'll know that Professor McGonagall is asked this general question in Rowling'due south 7th novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The Ravenclaw common room requires its would-exist entrants to correctly reply a question before they can become inside.
"Where exercise Vanished objects go?" the door knocker asks McGonagall.
"Into non-being, which is to say, everything," she replies.
Professor McGonagall has our brains bustling with questions. Warner Bros.
And so if yous vanish abroad the contents of a toilet (well, in the example there'southward no toilet but you understand the hypothetical hither) does that matter simply become ... into everything? Like your food? Or optics? Or Transfiguration homework? McGonagall's respond invokes a sort of molecular scientific discipline, as if y'all vanish an object by breaking it into teeny minuscule pieces and scattering them into the universe.
Applying pseudo-scientific theory to fictional magic might be airheaded but Pottermore has provided u.s. with this hypothetical scenario and therefore logic has to follow. We didn't enquire for this!
What do younger witches and wizards do?
Every bit a lot of folks on Twitter pointed out, the Vanishing spell isn't taught until 5th twelvemonth. Then what did the younger students do? Was there a prefect on bath duty in the hallways?
And how about the youngsters however at home?
Potty preparation seems bad enough for muggle parents with immature toddlers, but to have magical kids "relieve themselves" wherever they stand and need to vanish information technology for them sounds like a Magician-parents' nightmare. And over again, the impracticality of this is staggering. What if they need to use the bath in the middle of the night? Or at school? Or while out in public?
So many questions, so few answers. Warner Bros.
Do the witches and wizards just ... leave their robes on?
In the books, Hogwarts students wear schoolhouse robes at all times. The Muggle clothing like jeans and sweaters was only adopted for the movies, since blackness sorcerer robes are a rather monotonous visual.
But we tin't end imagining teenage wizards just crouching downward in the hallway and...going to the bathroom on the floor? The Pottermore tweet says "wherever they stood" but proficient gracious we don't want to think nearly people doing this whilestanding.
Tangentially, why wouldn't they just vanish the contents of their bowels while said contents are all the same inside their body?
How does this piece of work if the Sleeping room of Secrets was built in a bathroom centuries earlier?
Well this answer is actually where the trivia question originated. Every bit Pottermore tweeted, the site's original Bedroom of Secrets article says the hidden room was originally accessed past trap door. The "new" Hogwarts plumbing (again, this wasn't installed in the eighteenth century, long later on outhouses were invented) "threatened" the entrance just another Slytherin wizard sorted it out.
Here'southward that section in the Pottermore article:
There is clear evidence that the Bedchamber was opened more than than once between the death of Slytherin and the entrance of Tom Riddle in the twentieth century. When start created, the Chamber was accessed through a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels.
Yet, when Hogwarts' plumbing became more elaborate in the eighteenth century (this was a rare instance of wizards copying Muggles, because hitherto they simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence), the entrance to the Chamber was threatened, existence located on the site of a proposed bathroom.
The presence in schoolhouse at the time of a student called Corvinus Gaunt – direct descendant of Slytherin, and antecedent of Tom Riddle – explains how the elementary trapdoor was secretly protected, so that those who knew how could notwithstanding access the archway to the Chamber even afterwards newfangled plumbing had been placed on top of it.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovered the Chamber of Secrets in their second year at Hogwarts. Warner Bros.
Why did it take so long for Hogwarts to get on board with a individual place for people to relieve themselves?
"During the 11th-century castle-building boom, chamber pots were supplemented with toilets that were, for the first time, actually integrated into the architecture," a Smithsonian commodity on the history of toilets says.
If yous're a "Game of Thrones" fan, the article helpfully points out that the "bathroom" Tywin Lannister is in during the fourth season finale is a perfect instance of this compages. Surely the Hogwarts professors would accept been able to retro-fit the castle with one of these?
What nearly muggle-borns? What did they exercise when they got to Hogwarts?
Fifty-fifty before the 18th century plumbing, muggle-born witches and wizards would accept grown up with an alternative way of going to the bathroom. One reply to the Pottermore tweets shows a group of "Harry Potter" fans posturing this very good point.
—Teryn Gray (@teryn_gray) January 4, 2019
Going from whatsoever method of bathroom you had to the ol' "relieve yourself in the hallway" gambit must have been tricky.
Tin can we delight delete this Pottermore fact and become dorsum to not knowing this?
In the decade since Rowling's terminal published "Harry Potter" volume there have been many, many revelations about the wizarding world that fans wish had been left implied. Sometimes these facts have been sad but innocuous, like Hagrid being unable to always produce a Patronus. Only others, similar Rowling'due south reveal that Dumbledore is gay (just to disappoint fans by withholding meaningful representation of his sexuality) are more serious.
This is clearly an example of the erstwhile. Innocuous? Sure. But resulting in a lot of eyebrow-raising among fans? Definitely. If only we all had time-turners and could zoom dorsum to the past when we didn't know this, much like the time Moaning Myrtle once zoomed into the Neat Lake with the contents of a toilet.
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