The Wizarding World

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters (Platform 9¾)

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters (Platform 9¾) was a platform at King's Cross Station in London. Magically concealed behind the barrier between Muggle Platforms Nine and Ten, this Platform was where Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry students boarded the Hogwarts Express every 1 September, in order to attend school.

In order for someone to get onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, they had to walk directly at the apparently solid barrier dividing Platforms Nine and Ten. When returning from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, there was a guard stationed just outside the ticket barrier, in order to regulate exits from the platform through the gate, in order to not alarm the Muggles.

The Ministry of Magic (M.o.M.) was the main governing body of the magical community of Great Britain (i.e. England, Scotland and Wales) and Ireland, with the intention of preservation of magical law. The Ministry connected the British government to the wizarding world. The headquarters of the Ministry was in Whitehall, in central London, deep underground. It was headed by the Minister for Magic. By 2019, the Minister for Magic was Hermione Granger. Each Prime Minister of Great Britain was visited by the Minister for Magic. During the height of the Dark Lord's power, the Minister for Magic worked with the Muggle Prime Minister to ensure protection for the Muggle world.

The Ministry of Magic was formed as a successor to the earlier Wizards' Council and came into being in 1707. It was involved, in some capacity before its actual formation, in the International Confederation of Wizards' decision to enact the Statute of Secrecy in 1692, which took the responsibility of enforcing said Statute in the United Kingdom. The laws against magic-use by underage wizards and against wand use by non-wizard folk were also enforced by the Ministry, in part to maintain secrecy.

Other countries, such as Norway, France, Germany, Bulgaria, etc., had their own Ministries of Magic. The United States of America was one of the exceptions, given that its governing magical body was instead referred to as a "Magical Congress" (MACUSA)

Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place is tucked away in northwestern London, a twenty minute walk from Kings Cross Station. Both Unplottable and hidden behind a Fidelius Charm, the house is invisible to all but a few. Though the neighboring Muggles don’t even know the house exists, it was for many years home to the Black family – one of the wizarding world’s oldest pureblood families, and extremely proud to be so.

Leaky Cauldron

The Leaky Cauldron was a popular wizarding pub and inn located in London. It was the entrance to Diagon Alley and, indirectly, Knockturn Alley. The rear of the pub opened up onto a chilly courtyard that contains the entrance to both alley ways.

The pub was built by Daisy Dodderidge, the first landlady, in the early 1500s "to serve as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley. It had a bar, several private parlour rooms, and a large dining room.

To Muggles, the pub appears to be a broken-down old shop front on Charing Cross Road. This, however, was not the case prior to the imposition of the Statute of Secrecy and, prior to this, Muggle visitors were neither turned away nor made to feel unwelcome.

Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley is a magically-hidden, wizarding shopping street located behind the Leaky Cauldron in central London, just off Charing Cross Road.

Tapping just the right brick in the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron in London (“Three up…two across…”) will reveal an archway which is a portal into Diagon Alley, a long cobbled street where is to be found a strange and exciting assortment of shops and restaurants. It is unquestionably the hub of commerce in the British wizarding world, with virtually every wizarding business stationed there. Consequently, the demand for space here is steep, and rent costs “loads of Galleons”.

During the summer before his third year, Harry Potter spent several weeks in Diagon Alley, staying in a room at the Leaky Cauldron by night and roaming the street by day, marveling at the incredible shops and the witches and wizards, in from all over the country, who came by to do their shopping.

Following Voldemort’s return to power in 1996, wizards and witches no longer felt safe wandering out in public, and Diagon Alley changed dramatically. The once-crowded streets stood virtually empty, faces of Death Eaters plastered the fronts of once-bright shops, and street vendors popped up, hawking anti-Dark devices. Within another year and Voldemort’s taking over of the Ministry of Magic, a large number of shops had closed, replaced by others devoted to the Dark Arts, and the street was filled with Muggle-borns who had been cast aside by the new system. Presumably, after Voldemort’s eventual downfall and the installation of Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister for Magic (BLC), Diagon Alley eventually returned to its splendor of old.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hogwarts is one of the world’s finest wizarding schools, located in a massive castle in Scotland. Hogwarts takes students from all over Great Britain, starting at the age of 11. The students leave school after their seventh year.

The students at Hogwarts are sorted at the beginning of their first year into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The houses are named after the four founders of the school, who established Hogwarts around 990 AD.

Hogwarts is home to a student body of between 300 and 400 students, around fifteen teachers and staff, numerous ghosts, house-elves, and a particularly annoying poltergeist. The many rooms, corridors, staircases, passageways, and dungeons hold many secrets and mysteries from a thousand years’ worth of magical history.

The school motto, which appears on the crest, is “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus,” which means “Never tickle a sleeping dragon.”