Houses
| Crest |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| House | Horned SerpentSometimes considered to represent the mind of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Horned Serpent favours scholars. | WampusSometimes considered to represent the body of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Wampus favours warriors. | ThunderbirdSometimes considered to represent the soul of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Thunderbird favours adventurers. | PukwudgieSometimes considered to represent the heart of a witch or wizard. It is also said that Pukwudgie favours healers. |
| Founder | Isolt Sayre | Webster Boot | Chadwick Boot | James Steward |
| Notable Members | Seraphina Picquery | Webster Boot | Chadwick Boot, Porpentina Goldstein[11] | Queenie Goldstein[11] |
Sorting
There are four houses at Ilvermorny: Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie. When a student starts their education at Ilvermorny, they step onto a Gordian Knot on the floor in the centre of the entrance hallwith large wooden statues of the mascots for the four houses facing them. The carved statues react if they want the student in their house. The older students watch in silence from a circular balcony on a floor above them as the new students are sorted. The carvings react in different ways: the crystal in the Horned Serpent carving’s forehead glows, the Wampus carving roars, the Thunderbird carving beats its wings, and the Pukwudgie carving raises its arrow.
However, sometimes more than one carving will try to select the same student and so the student is then able to choose the house they prefer. This happens very rarely. Sometimes— as rare as once a decade or even a generation as in the case of one student — a student will be selected by every house. Seraphina Picquery, who was President of MACUSA 1920-1928 is known to have had this honour. She chose Horned Serpent.[1]
After the sorting, the student is brought to a large hall where they are chosen once more, this time by a wand. Prior to the end of Rappaport’s Law, children could not have a wand prior to schooling and had to leave their wand at school during school breaks and could only take the wand out of school when they reached seventeen years of age.[1]
Starry Seawolf 