Earlier today, Pottermore, ‘the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World’, tweeted the answer to a question I’m not sure anyone was asking.
The question? “How did students at Hogwarts pee before adopting Muggle plumbing methods?”
The answer? Behold:
Hogwarts didn't always have bathrooms. Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence. #NationalTriviaDay
— Pottermore (@pottermore) January 4, 2019
Enjoy that visual.
I'm glad little children can imagine this now thank you
— Oney (@OneyNG) January 4, 2019
How does this affect the Chamber of Secrets, accessible via Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom? I’m glad you asked.
Apparently, the adoption of Muggle plumbing methods threatened the very existence of the Chamber, which was previously only accessible by a concealed trapdoor.
JK Rowling has an explanation for how it remained hidden, however.
“The presence in school at the time of a student called Corvinus Gaunt – direct descendant of Slytherin, and antecedent of Tom Riddle – explains how the simple trapdoor was secretly protected, so that those who knew how could still access the entrance to the Chamber even after newfangled plumbing had been placed on top of it.”
This honestly just raises further questions. Like “When did wizards start using toilets to access the Ministry of Magic?”
Or “Where did tortured teenage ghosts hang out before the adoption of Muggle plumbing methods?”
But the biggest question of all is definitely “Did anybody want to know this?”, and I’m pretty certain the answer is no, absolutely not.
You have… not enhanced my enjoyment of the books with this helltweet
— Tim (@SeriouslyTim) January 4, 2019
You can't just say things
— Kyle ? (@KylePlantEmoji) January 4, 2019
While most people are confused, some people are in deep denial.
I refuse to accept this as canon. Medieval castles had toilets. It was a hole in the wall with a piece of wood over it with a hole cut in it. The waste would fall down into a room that a servant would shovel out. I 100% believe Hogwarts had bathrooms and this is what they had.
— Mychal Sanders ? (@MyaWritesThings) January 4, 2019
Good point, tbh. This is preferable to the image of everyone pissing themselves and simply magicking it away.
Anyway, it’s only a matter of time before an impressionable child pisses themselves, only to tell their parents it’s okay because wizards used to do it too. That will be JK Rowling’s legacy.