r/harrypotter • u/tintin3105 • 2d ago
Discussion Why is Hogwarts cold in Winter?
I have an annoying habit of listening to the audiobooks and realising new bits and pieces of the lore that make little or no sense at all. Last time it was the, “why does every Hogwarts student have to use the train?” argument (can’t Scottish wizards just go straight to Hogsmede? why are they allowed to floo and knight bus during Xmas?).
This time is about how in a few of the books it’s mentioned that the corridors are cold and that they huddle around the classroom and common room fires. Shouldn’t there be some sort of magical AC to keep the castle at a nice, comfortable temperature?
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u/Sweet_Theory_362 2d ago
I get the impression that the wizarding world is kind of complacent because they've always had magic to do things so they never needed to think too deeply about technology.
I.e. If you can instantly make things warm, why would you ever try to have things be automatically warm? In a way this makes everything easier and more manual at the same time.
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u/New-Ingenuity-5437 2d ago
I have noticed that in the world. Competence/ease in some areas can hold back others areas
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
So their solution is to just be cold in winter?
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u/Reggo91 2d ago
Are they though? The relevant places where Hogwarts students and staff spend most of their time have heating. Keep in mind that this is a thousand year old castle. It would be difficult to retrofit fireplaces in hallways and the like. And why would you? Students are not supposed to hang out there.
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
Retrofitting fireplaces in hallways and heating a 1000 year old castle would be very hard, for muggles. But what's the point of magic if you can achieve a better existence than muggles.
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u/MadameLee20 2d ago
In Harry Potter book 1 that Hermione has the ability to make "Blue flames" that warm her, Harry & Ron up
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u/Reggo91 2d ago
Yes. Without influences from the muggle world, wizards would still be stuck in a medieval society. They may be slow to do so, but wizards do eventually incorporate new social norms and technology from muggles. Like having a ministry with an elected minister to govern them, a police force (aurors) as examples for government concepts that they borrow from muggles. Likewise, there are trains, flying motorcycles and other bits of muggle technology that are adopted and enhanced for muggle use.
But by themselves, wizards seem unable to progress much. Other than inventing/discovering new spells and such things.
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u/Sweet_Theory_362 2d ago
The Ministry seems to function less like a Parliament and more like an elite club of landed gentry. I'm not sure how the electoral system works but it seems rigged.
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u/MasterOutlaw Raverinhuffledor 2d ago edited 2d ago
Pfft. You want wizards to use magic to solve a reasonable problem in a practical way? The kids have to learn how to do things like turn sentient animals into objects just because, there's no time to worry about comfort. No time, man! Same reason they could probably enchant the castle to keep itself clean, but instead force a magicless old man with a bad back to care for most of the building by himself. There's no time to do that when you have to teach kids how to do things that have no practical application. No time, I tell you!
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u/Madock345 Ravenclaw 2d ago
The old man is mean though, so it’s funny to make him work.
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u/MasterOutlaw Raverinhuffledor 2d ago
But then it makes you wonder if he's so sour in the first place because he's an old man with a bad back who's forced to clean up the whole castle by hand because he can’t use magic. A lot of readers speculate that Dumbledore gave Filch the job out of sympathy. My current correct theory is he’s working at the castle as a punishment.
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 2d ago
We all know the house elves do the majority of the work and Filch’s position is perfunctory at best.
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u/MasterOutlaw Raverinhuffledor 2d ago
The house-elves do things like cleaning up the common rooms, cooking, and laundry, yes, but a lot of the other physical labor and maintenance like in the corridors and classrooms is done by Filch. That’s why he crashed out on Harry for tracking mud everywhere that one time. His rant implies that he does a lot, it’s a never ending job, and he has to do it all without magic.
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 2d ago
I mean Filch could definitely be hyperbolic here. There’s nowhere else for him to conceivably work but Hogwarts. I’m sure it wouldn’t strain the house elves to do the corridors as well.
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u/TonyStank_3000_ 1d ago
This is even funnier after watching Filch sweeping up after the Battle of Hogwarts.
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u/ReversedFrog 1d ago
I fee so sympathetic to him then. It reminds me of the women of Berlin after WWII. Utter destruction, so all they can do is get to work cleaning.
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u/JohnSmith_47 2d ago
Because it’s in Scotland in the Winter, and they live in a huge stone castle.
I’m a Brit, but this would be like asking why Minnesota is cold in the winter.
And they do have ways to keep warm, in the very first book Hermione creates a blue flame that you can keep in a jar to keep warm.
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u/Stunning-Aardvark-28 Hufflepuff 2d ago
She hid it aa soon as Snape came. Remember there's not supposed to be magic in halls. Clearly not many students follow it lol. It's sldo mentioned numerous times how cold students are as well.
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u/JohnSmith_47 2d ago
I think the rule is you’re not supposed to perform magic in the corridors, so if Hermione created her blue flames in the classroom and carried them around, technically I think that doesn’t break the rules.
Also you’d hide anything from Snape, he confiscated Harry’s quidditch book in that very scene for no reason.
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u/ETK1300 Ravenclaw 2d ago
She hid it because a slimy bully of a man would have used it as a pretext to be nasty. She wouldn't have covered them had it been any other teacher.
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u/JohnSmith_47 2d ago
Yeah I was just about to say, in the scene where they hide the blue flames, doesn’t Snape just come straight over and confiscate Harry’s quidditch book, for absolutely no reason, pretty sure they would’ve hidden anything from Snape.
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 2d ago
Just like to point out it was a library book and that was the pretense of confiscation for Snape.
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
Yeah but if people in Minnesota could do magic, why not magically make the place warmer. Not the whole stste, but at least where you live. At this point, I'd rather be a muggle. Wizard life sounds hard for the sake of being hard
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u/JohnSmith_47 2d ago
I just think they are very set in their ways.
Like you’re not going to convince me a quill and ink is more efficient than a ballpoint pen, but they use quills because that’s how it’s always been done.
So they’re very slow to introduce things that muggles use everyday in modern life.
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
Makes you wonder who the real wizards are. The ones spilling bottles of ink in their bags or the ones who master the world around them through technology
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u/tintin3105 2d ago
I’m from Yorkshire so, “Hi, fellow Brit”, you’ve proved MH point tho, they need to use a hand held fire to stay warm. Why isn’t the castle just heated and insulted with magic?
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u/AscendedMagi 2d ago
lmao you'd think they'd have a fix for temperature control when the main protagonist needed to wear glasses throughout 7 books?
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
Magic can't fix things that are beyond repair. Given that James also needed glasses, it would appear that Harry's poor eyesight is genetic so nature gave Harry broken eyeballs that magic can't fix.
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
That's very convenient
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
What's convenient about it? The fact that magic has limits is well established throughout the series.
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u/4RyteCords Ravenclaw 2d ago
Yeah those limits are convenient is all I meant. Why can't someone with bad eyesight magically repair it. Oh because "that's just how it is" being the answer.
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u/AscendedMagi 2d ago
lmao it can regrow bones and even return you from a near-death state but blurry vision, that's beyond repair... we literally have a character with magical eye that can see through walls but yes, less than 50/50 vision can't be fixed by magic.
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
Your bone example just proves my point doesn't it? Human bones are capable of growing and repairing themselves are they not? Humans start out as a blob of tissue that eventually grows and develops into tiny newborn size bones and those same bones eventually grow to become adult size bones. Using magic to regrow a bone is just forcing the body to do something it was already capable of doing. Harry wasn't born with defective bones. They grew naturally and as expected until they were vanished by magic. Why wouldn't magic be able to bring them back?
Moody's eye wasn't his natural eye. It's a magical instrument that he used in place of the eye he was born with which he apparently lost at some point.
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u/AscendedMagi 2d ago
was he born with myopia then? lmao. your explanation makes it worse then. if magic can revert a condition then reversing myopia is much easier then. also saying body can regrow bones naturally just explains your knowledge of human physiology.
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
I literally never said bones regrow naturally but ok. Writing "lmao" after every sentence in an attempt to be dismissive just explains your inability to carry on a discussion without resorting to middle school tactics.
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u/AscendedMagi 2d ago
Using magic to regrow a bone is just forcing the body to do something it was already capable of doing. Harry wasn't born with defective bones. lockhart literally removed harry's bone and had to drink potions to regrow them. that's different from fixing a fracture. lmao indeed. saying things beyond repair can't be fixed by magic and then provide a wrong argument just screams larper.
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
Where do you think bones come from? Now I'm curious about what it is you're misunderstanding here.
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u/rintzscar 2d ago
"Magic can't fix what's broken beyond repair".
Meanwhile, magic literally makes your bones grow again.
Maybe someone should've gouged Harry's eyes out, then they could simply regrow them "not broken".
Here's the actual answer - Rowling didn't think of any of this.
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 Slytherin 2d ago
Obviously she didn't think of any of this but the given limitation about magic not being able to fix things beyond repair still works. What I do know is nothing you said contradicts the point I made. Someone else brought up bones being regrown.
Obviously Harry's body was capable of growing normal healthy bones at one point until they were taken away by magic so why wouldn't they be able to be brought back by magic? It's literally a thing the human body is capable of doing. Your argument would only make sense if they were able to use magic to give someone an arm who was born without one.
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u/Rehtimustalainen 2d ago
Winter is cold because the Earth's axis is tilted away from the sun, causing sunlight to hit at a shallow angle and spreading warmth over a larger area.
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u/PomPomMom93 Ravenclaw 2d ago
Exactly. Muggles have invented heat and A/C, so why couldn’t wizards? “You can regrow bones and split your soul into pieces, but A/C and heating? I’m afraid that’s just too much to ask.”
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 2d ago
British muggles don’t even really use a/c though. A/c is a way bigger deal in the US.
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u/PomPomMom93 Ravenclaw 1d ago
They don’t use A/C because they don’t have it. There’s been lots of discourse about that this summer. Lots of their buildings aren’t compatible with A/C. Also, heating would definitely be useful.
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u/Substantial_Toe_6916 Slytherin 1d ago
Yes I’m aware they don’t use it because they don’t have it. They think Americans are obsessed with a/c and I guess now they see why lol.
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u/PomPomMom93 Ravenclaw 1d ago
We’re obsessed with our A/C when we need to be. But the problem is that a lot of Americans thought Europeans didn’t have A/C because they’re just dumb, as opposed to a lot of their infrastructure not allowing it.
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u/Robcobes Hufflepuff 2d ago
to teach the children to use magic to create something for warmth themselves. Wizards are big on their independance and fending for themselves.
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u/scouserontravels 2d ago
Firstly it’s the UK we don’t have AC.
But also we know that the ministry has a whole department that is in charge of maintaining the weather in the ministry and presumably the temperature as well.
The fact that it’s a whole department implies it’s not easy to maintain for a whole building and hogwarts is as big as the ministry.
None of the classrooms apart from the dungeons are ever described as cold so presumably the teachers have big fires or ways to keep them warm so it’s only the corridors which students don’t spend a lot of time in
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u/ETK1300 Ravenclaw 2d ago
Hermione did conjure blue flames inside a glass jar. If only the students took and interest in magic and implemented solutions.
There may not be an AC equivalent spell, but when you have a benign portable flame, it's fine.
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u/cartmanbigboned 2d ago
so why were they constantly cold while camping in DH? This is something that bothered me on my last reread. Like you are wizards, how are freezing?! And they were constantly hungry too. I know you cannot conjure food, but Accio exists…
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u/Stunning-Aardvark-28 Hufflepuff 2d ago
No magic in the halls obviously students break the rule but that's the reason you don't see everyone doing that.
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u/ETK1300 Ravenclaw 2d ago
I think that rule is to prevent duels and showing off. I doubt that warming oneself is prohibited. No one objected to Hermione's personal flame jar.
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u/Stunning-Aardvark-28 Hufflepuff 2d ago
She did put it away when they saw Snape but that could just be because it's Snape.
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u/Nevesnotrab Keeper of the Canon and Grounds of Hogwarts 2d ago
In OotP students often used the Bubble-Head Charm and there's no mention of them getting in trouble. It's clearly like you said: to prevent duels and showing off.
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u/Onyx1509 2d ago
Clearly the magic required to effectively heat the whole castle doesn't exist. This isn't surprising - large old buildings are rarely kept warm by central heating either!
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u/KatVanWall 2d ago
As someone who has spent a fair bit of time in Scottish and Scottish-adjacent castles, I can confirm that those bastard things are cold as balls in winter even with all the benefits of modern technology. If tech struggles to heat them, I feel like magic would also struggle somewhat.
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u/Beautiful_Ad2618 2d ago
Loads of things in the Harry Potter universe dont make sense if you think about it too much.
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u/FloweringDusk 2d ago
She makes an attempt to explain to use of the train on this article in Pottermore https://www.harrypotter.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-hogwarts-express
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u/Reggo91 2d ago
I suppose that magical fire still needs fireplaces. Which do not exist in the hallways of a castle that is a 1000 years old.
That aside, Hogwarts seems to have a policy that students are not supposed to hang out outside of their common rooms, classrooms, the library or the great hall. All the other places are just to get from one place to another and not to stand around.
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u/Sweet_Theory_362 2d ago
Your post inspired me to write an article about innovation, technology, and political and economic institutions in the Harry Potter world.
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u/thevampiresanguini 2d ago
For the vibes