So... international Hufflepuff?

 

Sort of.

Except Hufflepuff doesn't kidnap you if you refuse the letter welcoming you to Hogwarts.

The idea was sort of born from "wizards really like their statute", and "how did they stop obscurials?". The idea of a school that takes anyone, even the unwilling, to give them the minimum needed to avoid breaking the statute.

 

That suits my notion that most Asian wizards are removed from muggle society to live in Xanadu a.k.a. Shangri-La -- an isolated wizard-space realm accessible only through a gateway protected by the Nepalese school.

It's the only way to keep them from interfering. The ones left behind are typically of mixed Asian/British descent, so that the West doesn't get uppity about their children disappearing.

The move to Shangri-La/KunLun was precipitated by the Opium wars, as opiates have a detrimental effect on spell casting. The weakened will makes it difficult to focus. Part of me thinks that Western wizards facilitated the rise of the British Empire in order to impose Secrecy across the world.

 

While travelling across a country or across Europe might be easy, there's no evidence travelling across the planet is. It was made quite clear in GoF that most international travel is by portkey and that they're not simple like flooing or apparation.

 

I've ordered some basic notes I made for my eternally-in-planning-phase fic.

New Alexandria
The original Alexandrian Academy was one of the finest attempts at creating an organised school of magic. Claiming both Egyptian Thoth and Greek Hermes as its patrons, as to represent various forms of knowledge and based in the cosmopolitical city of Alexandria it quickly became a centre of development of Graeco-Egyptian magical thought. After its tragic destruction, there were many attempts to claim its legacy, most of them short-lived. When in Renaissance number of attempts reached absurd numbers (along with attempts at creating successors to Lyceum and Plato's Academy), the Greek and Egyptians magical governments decided to cut stop to it by helping create a New Alexandria on one of Mediterranean uncertain isles.

The shape of the new academy was as less inspired by the old one than by another destroyed jewel of Alexandria - Pharos with its light supposed to represent enlightenment of the mind. In contrast to the school of which legacy it is based, the New Alexandria admits not adults, but eleven years old. Instead, it works closely with the Egyptian Centre for Alchemical Studies, both sharing their resources with each other. The corporation seems to be fruitful, as the alumni of New Alexandria are responsible for a large portion of recent discoveries in the field of alchemy.

Chinese school
Hidden in one of the uncertain valleys of Kunlun Mountains, this school was created by a group of xians who tried to escape the sectarian conflicts of Chinese magical community. As time passed it gained on relevance, though even currently it's far from dominating. Due to its geographical proximity to Shamballan School (as much as we can talk about such in this case) and heavy differences between magical systems taught by them, they are in a state constant competition.


Also, exist, but I haven't written any notes on them yet.

School in Shamballa
School in Israel, under the city of Safed
Some school rooted in Islamic magical traditions
Seven Seas Academy, somewhere in New Zealand
Shool of kahunas (a small one)

There are also magical sort-of-universities (more in the form of research centres, than teaching institutions, but I didn't think much about them so far, with the only one added being the Collegium Arcanum of Jagiellonian University (of which the muggle university, of course, has no idea).

 

I have a scene in my fic where I go into depth about the magical schools. Here are the passages:

​

In my head canon:

1) Schools only appear in regions where magic has been standardized, and thus able to be taught to a group of students at once. This leads to large sections of the world where people do not use the wand and learn magic from families and apprenticeships.

2) The magical world is massively smaller, with larger empires and countries existing compared to the Muggles. Think 1600s Europe/World compared to modern day. Most Muggle nations do not exist in the wizarding world.

3) The Ottomans are one of the reasons the Statute of Secrecy was put into place. It was always an informal rule that wizards don't get involved in muggles' war, but the Ottomans changed that. They would steal young muggle-born witches and wizards to breed and fight for them, leading to massive territorial gains. One of the reasons the Ottomans could not invade all of Europe was because the SoS was enacted, leading the Ottoman's armies significantly weakened. The wizard Ottoman empire is in a cold war with many European nations. It's a large reason why Dark Magic is more popular in Eastern Europe: a way to protect themselves from the 'evil Ottomans'.

4) There are smaller schools, they just are not prevalent. When I am looking at the 11 schools, I am thinking they are the international recognized-- meaning ivy league. Many smaller regions of the world have schools, they are tiny and nothing compared to the major institutions. This is much of the case with Australia and New Zealand. The native wizards use their own brand of magic, while the 'wand-wielding' wizards are far and few between.

5) I really suck at names and haven't determined the name for the Ottoman, Indian or Chinese schools as of yet.

 

Well, I can make a suggestion for name of Ottoman originated school. Actually, there existed a school like your description in Ottoman administration though there was no magic or breeding. And less stealing and more forced conscription, that was the Ottoman way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_School

TLDR: "Enderûn-i Hümâyûn Mektebi" was for best of the christian minority ( and later in history for Turk citizens too). Enderun graduates were top of the Ottoman administration. Viziers, pashas, Janissary commanders, captains, scholars, poets...

So, you can just add an arm for wizarding education and it can fill your world just like that. Or you can just say that Enderûn was only for magically gifted and higher ranks of Ottoman administration were filled with magical folk.

However, if you look for an original name, you should look for some Persian words and use Arabic grammar to create your school name.

 

Thank you!

I was basing the 'stealing' of wizards on what happened in real life with the conscription of men and harems/slavery for women. Here, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by a wizard and had his harem of stolen witches, where many of his elite soldiers (Janissaries) were wizards. They were trained to work with the muggle soldiers on the field, which made the Ottoman armies a deadly force.

This eventually prompted many European countries to do the same (for their own protection), and many wizards in power grew alarmed, especially with the religious backlash happening in the background, which helped prompt the SoS.

The school will probably have been a branch of Enderun, which split after the SoS.

 

I'm pretty sure Koldovstoretz could fulfill that purpose - school for Eastern Europeans, whose parent didn't want or were unable to send them to Durmstrang.

 

Anyone else getting a gulag vibe from this one? The name sounds like 'Cold Storage'.

"And what happens to the Muggleborns from Eastern Europe who can't speak French or afford to travel to France?"

"Oh, them? They are 'sent to Koldovstoretz'."

 

I also find it hard to believe that Rome and Constantinople wouldn't have their own schools. Yes, traveling to and from Greece/France/Egypt would be easy, but these were two of the largest, wealthiest, and most politically important cities in history. Same too with Baghdad, although I could see that school being destroyed with the invasion of the Mongols, like the rest of Baghdad was.

 

Don't forget Rome (or even Italy) was not the center of power for over a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Hogwarts was the first magical school, thus we are looking at nations/cities that were powerful in the Late Middle Ages. Italy was a split nation until quite recently. This could be the reason why a school never formed in Italy. Perhaps it is the French school that covers most of the old Roman Empire's magical children (Spain, North Africa, Italy, some of the Balkans).

I do think Constantipole would have a magical school, however. I agree with Baghdad and having it destroyed by the Mongols.

 

To be honest I doubt any Muggle settlement has a magical school, never mind a city.

 

Operating from the theory that magical schools also act as a 'heat sink' for accidental magic, they really do need to be isolated from muggle interference.

 

I think due to the secrecy laws, all magical children would go to some kind of school to ensure no Obscrurials are allowed to come about.

 

I think this makes sense for kids raised in the wizarding world, but what about muggleborns? Are we assuming it's canon that British muggleborns have no choice but to attend Hogwarts? What if their parents don't want them to go?

I assumed for a recent fic that it was possible for muggleborns to get private tutoring in magic (say, on the weekends) in order to prevent accidental magic and preserve the Statute. I was surprised at how many people told me that was implausible. The alternative is legalized kidnapping. Tutoring young muggleborns also seems like an interesting way for adult muggleborns to earn some cash.

 

Creedence was an exception though, most obscurials self-resolve if we're being strictly pragmatic.

 

Was it?

I would go with kidnapping and some necessary memory tweaking if I was in charge. Tutoring would lead to muggleborn wizards that are still invested in the muggle world and disconnected from magical one. Pretty dangerous for ISOS.

 

Definitely dangerous for the statute, but the kidnapping solution is a double-edged sword. Then you've got muggleborns who have been forcefully estranged from their families. How many would just accept that? Especially since they're being forced to adapt to a society that is bigoted and doesn't really want them there. That's a motive for disgruntled muggleborns to blow the statute to smithereens.

 

We have some reason to believe Hogwarts was the first magical school, at least for children. It was built in an age where it was uncommon for children to be educated at all, in any trade, and that would likely include magic, which would make sense given the contemporary idea of the lone witch out in the woods, rather than a society with economy and government.
That said, I could imagine something in Ancient Greece or China.