How the US Wizarding World is Different From Harry Potter's

Harry Potter's stories taught us a lot about how things function for British wizards, but Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them shows there are some big differences across the pond.

By Eric Goldman

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them offers a huge expansion of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, taking place not just in another era from the Harry Potter stories but in a location – North America – the Potter books and films never ventured to.

So just what sets this area of the Wizarding World apart from what we saw before? A lot, as it turns out. Yes, there are similar basic trappings – including a school, Ilvermony, with four different houses and a government body, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (AKA the MACUSA), that functions much like the Ministry of Magic. But there are specifics about how these communities grew and function that make things very different in ways that go beyond using the term "No-Maj" instead of "Muggle" for non-magical people.

Before Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens, here are five notable facts about the North American Wizarding World.

Ilvermorny Was Formed by a Witch and a No-Maj

Located in Mount Greylock, Massachusetts, the North American wizarding school, Ilvermorny, was founded in the early seventeenth century. The powerful witch Isolt Sayre (an immigrant from Ireland) began Ilvermorny with her husband, a No-Maj named James Steward, as a place to teach their own adopted children – eventually expanding into a full school, with students attending from both near and far.

Ilvermorny (image via Pottermore)

Having a No-Maj co-founder for a wizarding school would be notable regardless of location, but is especially ironic in North America, considering how badly things would go between the two different communities in the centuries to come.

The Scourers: Witches and Wizards at Their Worst

In the 17th century, with the North American wizarding community still fragmented, a group of witches and wizards formed a mercenary group known as the Scourers. These bounty hunters wouldn’t just bring in criminals but rather take any job they were properly compensated for – growing increasingly dangerous and corrupt over time, with their own crimes including torture and murder. They were also known for their willingness to profit off the fear some No-Majs had of witchcraft, sometimes capturing and being rewarded for bringing in supposed witches and wizards who were actually No-Majs.

When the MACUSA formed in the wake of the Salem Witch Trials (more on that below), its first act was to hunt down and stop the Scourers. While this put an end to them on a large scale, those who avoided capture would go incognito, romancing and marrying No-Majs and hiding among the non-wizard community. Seeking retribution against the greater wizarding world that had rejected them, these hidden Scourers would completely turn on their own kind, insidiously encouraging the destruction of any with magical abilities.

The Salem Witch Trials Were a Turning Point

In Rowling’s Wizarding World, the Salem Witch Trials resulted in the deaths of both actual witches and some No-Majs who were accused of witchcraft – though all of those killed were innocent of any actual wrongdoing. While Puritans were a driving force behind the witch trials, there were at two Scourers who had managed to insert themselves among their number, seeking revenge against enemies.

In the aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials, some witches and wizards would leave North America for their original homes overseas. In fact, it became a reason for many – particularly pure-blood families – to stay away from that part of the world altogether for centuries to come.

By 1926, as Fantastic Beasts begins, a new group has formed calling themselves the Second Salemers, who are convinced witches and wizards are not only real, but must be destroyed once and for all.

A Bitter Split Between With No-Majs

No doubt fueled by events like the Salem Witch Trials, the North American Wizarding community became increasingly fearful and suspicious when it came to No-Majs – leading to the 1790 enacting of “Rappaport’s Law,” which put into place strict segregation rules forbidding the witches and wizards from marrying or even befriending No-Majs, and leading to even more of a paranoid sense of secrecy. Unlike their European counterparts -- in the Harry Potter books, we learned that the British Prime Minister was aware of and could contact the Minister of Magic -- the MACUSA had no interaction whatsoever with the US government. As time went on, more and more witches and wizards were raised to view No-Majs with outright hostility.

While Rappaport’s Law would eventually be repealed in 1965, it is still very much law as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them begins.

The MACUSA Kept Moving (Literally)

Unlike the British Ministry of Magic, the Magical Congress of the United States has moved locations several times since its formation. Originally, the MACUSA was in the Appalachian Mountains, but that didn't last long, due to its inconvenient location. Its second location, in Williamsburg, Virginia, was abandoned after a scandal involving the MACUSA president’s pet Crups (a magical beast) attacking local No-Majs. The next location was in Baltimore, before moving to Washington during the Revolutionary War.

Finally, in 1892, the MACUSA would move one last time, in the wake of the wonderfully named "Great Sasquatch Rebellion" - which, not shockingly, involved Sasquatches rebelling against the MACUSA, angered by the control they attempted to exert over them.

The MACUSA’s fifth -- and, so far, final -- location was in New York, hidden within the Woolworth Building. And it’s there that Newt Scamander would travel in 1926…

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at http://Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.

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