Courtyard

Magical though it may be, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could, at times, prove to be a rather hectic place. The classrooms, winding halls, moving staircases, even the four different house common rooms could feel suffocating at those times, and students could find themselves longing to leave. Of course, leaving entirely was not wholly possible, nor was it something that the students truly wished to do. The vast Hogwarts grounds, too, were not always available for students to frolic along, and the shortened time between classes coupled with the general desire to remain close to the castle kept that option limited. The answer of where to go, then, became the school courtyard.

Located between one wall of Hogwarts castle and three open hallways, which led to the path between the hospital wing of the school and the covered bridge which ran alongside the Great Lake's coast, this courtyard was often the home to these students seeking a brief yet much desired escape. After classes and especially during the school holidays during which school was let out, however, it would also be filled with children simply seeking a place to relax and unwind. Thus, even when classes were still in session and the courtyard should be empty and simply acting in its capacity as a witness to students scurrying through halls to get to their next lessons, the open space was still the constant sponsor of shrieks of delight, laughter, and just general contentment.

Throughout the long history of the school, the stones that made up the ground of the courtyard had long been dirtied and marked all over with footprints of various sizes. Underneath the dirt and moss that had come to grow in between the cracks of the stone, however, the original design of the courtyard ground was still visible. Made up of grayish stone bricks, the slabs followed a circular pattern around a grand fountain placed in the center of the courtyard until they reached the very edges of the area, where the perimeter of the space was traced with rectangular stones running parallel to it.

This fountain was large and tall, with a low, circular base bordered on both sides by two wide, stone pillars. Atop these pillars sat an arched roof for the fountain, with a Hogwarts crest carved into each of its sides. The bottom of the fountain extended out in four low, rectangular stone bases, which were spaced out evenly with two of them lining up with the columns that flanked the structure. Atop each of these protrusions sat a griffin, carved of stone, facing the low benches situated at each of the four corners of the courtyard. This fountain, though long run dry of water, was nevertheless a sight to marvel at and was often the subject of drawings sketched by the students who visited the courtyard as a place to sit down and create.