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Hogwarts is the wizarding academy that Harry and his friends attend, an amazing school housed in a giant castle. The story is set in the modern day, but Hogwarts, like the rest of the wizarding world, is set far apart from the Muggles (non-magical people.) Hogwarts can be seen as mysterious, with its many hidden passageways and rooms, as well as the ghosts, moving pictures, and alive sets of armor. However, it is also a welcoming and cozy place, with the warm fires in the common rooms, the (usually) kind teachers, and the delicious meals eaten in the cavernous Great Hall. Hogwarts represents home for Harry, evoking feelings of comfort, due to the fact that it was the first place that he ever felt accepted, having lived with the abominable Dursleys for the first eleven years of his life.

Located in Hogwarts, the Great Hall is the cavernous room where all meals are eaten each day. While at first seemingly just a cafeteria, the hall starts playing a significant role in the story. It’s where Harry’s name is called from the Goblet of Fire, completely altering the entire plot of the story; where the Yule Ball takes place, a major event in the story; where Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament would take place at Hogwarts… and where a variety of other smaller events take place: Hermione receiving angry letters from the morning mail about the article that Rita Skeeter wrote about her- the one that detailed her as a rude and devious child. The Great Hall has a large amount of tones, all depending on the certain event.

While seemingly just another aspect of Hogwarts grounds, the lake soon starts playing an interesting part in the story. As the day of the second task starts coming closer and closer, Harry, who has no clue how to complete the task (surviving underwater for an hour to retrieve something), starts panicking and starts seeing the lake as terrifying, staring into its deep, mysterious depths in anxiety. Thankfully, Dobby the house elf can help him figure out how to complete the task, and Harry can go underwater, where he finds that the Merpeople live at the bottom of the lake. In chapter 26, the book describes the merpeople as having “greyish skins and long, wild, dark green hair” and “they leered at Harry as he swam past”, inputting the perspective of Harry that they are very scary. Therefore, the Hogwarts Lake –containing these dangerous creatures, as well as many others that Harry encounters on his journey to the bottom– is likely seen as formidable and sinister by readers.

In the climax of the story, Harry and Cedric touch the Triwizard Tournament Cup at the same time without knowing it was a portkey that would take them to the graveyard where Voldemort’s father was buried. It was in that graveyard that Cedric died; Voldemort, the most evil wizard in history, came back; and where Harry was an inch from death from Voldemort. Because of all these things, that graveyard is known as a horrifying place for Harry… always bringing up the scariest memories of Harry’s when he thinks about it… that graveyard was one of the reasons that Voldemort was able to return and regain his reign of terror over the entire Wizarding World.