Most Harry Potter fans would give their left arm to spend a night in the magical school of Hogwarts - but perhaps they'd think twice if they took on board this little tidbit.
According to a recently resurfaced bit of information from Pottermore, the wizarding school didn't always have plumbing, leaving wannabe spellbinders simply doing their do on the floor and then Wingardium Leviosing it outta there.
The gross-out trivia originally came from a 2012 post titled 'Chamber of Secrets', where author JK Rowling explained: "When first created, the Chamber was accessed through a concealed trapdoor and a series of magical tunnels.
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"However, when Hogwarts' plumbing became more elaborate in the eighteenth century (this was a rare instance of wizards copying Muggles, because hitherto they simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence), the entrance to the Chamber was threatened, being located on the site of a proposed bathroom.
"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."
She slipped that one in there pretty quietly, don't ya think? But now that Pottermore has highlighted this rather gruesome fact, it's garnered the fandom's attention and it's safe to say that they're disgusted.
The post also got people thinking about what this means for the Potterverse. Like, does it explain why the students all wear long robes? What if they couldn't master the poop-away spell? And what exactly did the spell entail? ('Vanish me poopum' is a leading candidate... slow clap for the internet.)
Most significantly, as one user pointed out, where does it vanish to? "Wasn't there a passage in Deathly Hallows where Hermione was talking about the laws of transfiguration, saying you cannot make things out of nothing, and you cannot actually banish something into nonexistence? I mean, it has to go somewhere." Perhaps the Slytherin common room? Just an idea.
Topics: Harry Potter, JK Rowling, Entertainment News, TV and Film
