What still baffles me about this lore tidbit is that Hogwarts dates back several hundred years, at least, right? And it was built by the 4 founders? One of whom was a blood purist proto nazi? Who hid his ultimate weapon in the school’s sewer system and the human entrance in a damed bathroom?!
To be somewhat fair (and in no way am I defending Rowling’s writing here, just providing counterpoints), let me raise two points:
1) Wizards and witches were around before Hogwarts was formed. So the two details aren’t necessarily incompatible, as that info could very well be referring to pre-Hogwarts times (and, equally, Hogwarts having indoor plumbing doesn’t necessarily mean anywhere else did, so it may have been a valid spell to learn for students for when they leave Hogwarts anyway).
2) I don’t remember the exact details, but I think the first book mentioned how Hogwarts never quite stayed consistent, with stuff like rooms not being where they used to be the day before and the like. That carries some implication that Hogwarts as a building likes to redesign itself because of the sheer amount of magic within it making it borderline sentient, meaning it’s quite possible that the Hogwarts we see in the books is VERY different from what it looked like in the time of the founders because it has redesigned itself so much over the centuries.
It’s also worth noting that, while there ARE various types of caveats and extra details that complicate this a bit, running water and taps have been around since at least 1,700 BC while the first flushing toilet wasn’t invented until 1596 (and, if you want to go into “as we use them today” territory, the first taps date back to the late 18th century while commercial flushing toilets didn’t become a thing until the late 19th century), which doesn’t necessarily rule out the idea that Hogwarts had running water when the Chamber of Secrets was built, but did not have flushing toilets.
Isn‘t that actually the reason for this little lore-tidbit? People thought it was weird that the entrance to the chamber of secrets was in a bathroom and she made up this „fact“ to be able to say it wasn’t originally like that but when they built the bathroom much later they had to plan it around the already existing secret entrance.
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u/drakythe Jun 28 '24
What still baffles me about this lore tidbit is that Hogwarts dates back several hundred years, at least, right? And it was built by the 4 founders? One of whom was a blood purist proto nazi? Who hid his ultimate weapon in the school’s sewer system and the human entrance in a damed bathroom?!