Can we have one in Chicago? Have a stop on the Metro or South Shore that takes wizard kids home? 😀The oldest formal wizarding school is Chicago School for Sorcery, or “Chess,” as the students insist on calling it. Founded by Hermetics and Western Esotericists in the 19th century, Muggles would recognize it as the old Chicago Water Tower.
(When they were designing it, there were a great many arguments over whether the old-style castle structure wouldn’t draw a lot of attention from Muggle passers-by. Finally, the planning committee elicited the help of William Boyington, a squib engineer who agreed to help disguise it as a pump station. They thought themselves very clever for that solution.)
(Also, this is the reason that the water tower was among the only structures spared by the Chicago fire—though initially the professors had cast the spells to protect it from destruction of the students’ making.)
In addition to the tower itself, Chess boasts a warren of underground hallways and classrooms—including their crowning achievement, a dining hall and library whose ceilings offer a view of Lake Michigan from below. As for curriculum, they’re a pretty traditionally European wizarding school, though since the 70s there has been significant push to make the curriculum more inclusive, and bring some diversity to the teaching staff.
Students who live within the city limits (or near enough) can take the CTA—the Chartreuse line, whose conductor takes great delight in hopping the tracks and playing chicken with the morning Express lines. Many witches and wizards have lodged complaints. None have been acknowledged.
Students from out of state are free to make use of Amtrak’s Midwest Mongoose line, which has no set route or destination but must be summoned by writing your name, fare, and destination on a piece of paper, stuffing it in a glass bottle, and shattering the bottle on the curbside.
Students always emerge from Union Station bleary-eyed and pale after taking the Midwest Mongoose, mumbling about service advisories.
#there’s another chicago wizarding school in bronzeville on 47th street #it was founded during the great migration; when CheSS turned away the young black wizards claiming ”over-enrollement” #and up until about the end of world war II it was considered one of the foremost all-black wizarding schools in the country #and those are just the formal schools; recognized by the National Council for Magical Education #as an Irish-American enclave Bridgeport was always home to the Druidic Syncretic tradition; they taught it out of their kitchens #in church basements #there’s slavic peganism in polish downtown and the stock yard district #they say that old town is still saturated with the centuries of magic worked by the Potawatomi Miami and Illinois #the German Catholics came in with runic magic #mexican and puerto rican wizards moved into the northern suburbs in the last decade or so—but they say #that brujeria is quickly becoming one of the most widely-practiced traditions in the city #SO HEY GUYS DO YOU THINK I’M IN LOVE WITH THIS CITY OR /WHAT/ #harry potter #rinais
Excuse me, I just started drooling.
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