Boathouse

Boathouse
Location information
Location	Dungeons level, Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, Great Britain
Owner(s)	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Permanent residents	Percival Pratt's portrait (1995-1996)
Affiliation	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"The little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of under-ground harbour, where they clambered out onto the rocks."

— The first-year students' boat journey to Hogwarts

The Boathouse was an underground harbour at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where the boats were stored and where they docked when the first-years arrived at Hogwarts Castle every 1 September.

History

The Boathouse in 1927

1920s to 1980s

In 1927, when Newt Scamander and his allies travelled to Hogwarts to meet with Dumbledore, while walking on the Viaduct, the Boathouse could be seen down below.

During the 1985-1986 school year, the poachers Todd and Corrine Cribb used the boats to steal the pets of various Hogwarts students. However, they were able to be tracked by the Tung oil that was used to coat the boats, which eventually led to their defeat. In order to deter people from following them, they left an enchanted chest in the Boathouse.

During the 1989–1990 school year, Charlie Weasley and Jacob's sibling searched the Boathouse for information about their brother Jacob, as Duncan Ashe had told them they held secret meetings there in their school days. When they searched the Boathouse, they found a concealed letter written by Jacob addressed to their sibling.

Later that year, Alastor Moody had the Dark wizard Kazuhiro Shiratori tied to a chair with ropes in the Boathouse for Jacob's sibling to interrogate him, after having captured him from Knockturn Alley. However, after he defiantly refused to divulge information about R and its leader, Moody knocked him unconscious and transported him to Azkaban from there.

1990s

During the 1990–1991 school year, Jacob's sibling held a Circle of Khanna meeting in the Boathouse, where they announced the group would be investigating Olivia Green, their new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Jae Kim and Nymphadora Tonks here agreed to help them search her office.

The Circle of Khanna meeting in the Boathouse

Later that year, Merula Snyde agreed to meet Jacob's sibling in the Boathouse for a private conversation, where she told them about she was partially aware of "R"'s mind control plans and how she was tasked with retrieving a special crown from the Sunken Vault for the organisation, but she could remember its name.

Jacob's sibling again met with Merula in the Boathouse, where Merula gave her the proposal of meeting with her aunt Verucca Buckthorn-Snyde in Knockturn Alley. She was initially sceptical given her aunt's sinister nature, but she later agreed to the deal. After their meeting, she met with Merula again to discuss how to best deal with her difficult aunt.

Andre Egwu, in preparation for this N.E.W.T.s, used the Boathouse to practise transfiguration on a fedora atop a Mechanical Death Eater.

In the 1995–1996 school year, a portrait of Percival Pratt hung on one of the walls, concealing a shortcut to the Grand Staircase There were some rafters in the ceiling, that were used to store the small wooden boats. Seagulls could be found around the area of the Boathouse.

After Pratt's portrait was taken away from the Boathouse, there were only three entrances to this building: The path outside The Quad, the stairs going down from the Entrance Courtyard and the Lake. For Horace Slughorn's Slug Club Christmas party in December 1996, fireworks were set from the Boathouse exterior, to signal the start of said party.

21st century

Days after her arrival at Hogwarts for the Intercontinental Wizard's Cup in the 2011–2012 school year, Violet Williams told an unidentified Muggle-born Hogwarts student she had met with earlier that while she was enjoying a walk with her pet Crup, Nono, the Crup noticed one of Rubeus Hagrid's missing Diricawls and chased after it. As a result, the Diricawl leapt into the Boathouse and was eventually found by the student.

(Presumably)

The Boathouse was presumably the site of a fire involving Eustace Fawley during his third year. The scene was investigated by Mathilda Grimblehawk and her partner as well as Jeremiah Garnet, a reporter for the Wizarding Wireless Network who believed a dragon was responsible.

Behind the scenes

Snape and Voldemort in the Boathouse in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

• While the Boathouse is described as an "underground harbour" in the novels, both the film and video game adaptations depict it as an exterior building with a tower on top.
• The Boathouse was redesigned for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for Severus Snape's death to take place in it, instead of the Shrieking Shack, taking the shape of a crystal house.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
• Hogwarts Legacy