Ilvermorny School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry

Ilvermorny School Year

Ilvermorny's school year structure follows the format of a typical high school in the United States, as opposed to Hogwarts which resembles a college schedule in the United Kingdom. During the holidays, which start on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, students can go home. Classes resume the following Monday. Students also get a short break for the holidays, starting the week before Christmas, and classes start again on the first Monday of the second week of January. Summer break begins in mid-June, and students return the day after Labor Day for the next term. Additionally, many national holidays are observed. For spring break, students can either vacation in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Vermont, New Hampshire, Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Boston, or Maine for two weeks or remain at school. There are no classes on Jewish holidays, and students are given the day off. 

The summer break usually starts mid-June and concludes the week after Labor Day. Rather than owls, first-year students receive their acceptance letters, schedules, Gordian Knot pendants, and a list of required supplies via messenger hawks or ravens. For No-Maj-born students, Professor Emaline Goode, the Deputy Headmistress, personally delivers their acceptance letters. She acts as a special messenger to explain everything to them and their parents.

Students across the continent will be picked up by trains on August 25th and dropped off in New York City by September 3rd. Each train will depart from its respective platform at different times to ensure that all students arrive at the school on the same day and at the same time, which is noon on September 1st. To accommodate the vast distance traveled, students from the West will have the first opportunity to board the trains. Meanwhile, students from Hawaii should gather at the official portal situated at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu. The trains are categorized by region as follows:

1. West

2. Southwest

3. Midwest

4. Southeast

5. Northeast

- Webster's Way departs from Estacion Buenavista in Mexico City on August 29th, due to the distance at 8 pm (typically it takes 1 day and 13 hours to reach New York City from Mexico City, but magic speeds it up by just a Lil' bit). Some students from the West Coast and Central America use Webster's Way to get to New York, while the train in Toronto departs at 6 a.m. on September 2nd with the train from New York City departing at 9 a.m. on August 30th as well. James' Junction (Which serves the East Coast and the Midwest) leaves Grand Central Terminal at noon on Labor Day, arriving at Ilvermorny Station in Adams, Massachusetts. It usually takes 4 to 5 hours to reach Adams. Once all students arrive at the platform at the bottom of Mount Greylock, it's as if they never left each other. Names are being creamed down the platform and hugs are being exchanged left and right. All the upperclassmen are crazed and excited to test their new ways of reaching the school first in the unofficial event titled "Summit to the Gates" while the first years ascend the mountain via a tunnel. There are countless ways to reach the top of the hill. The first years are then welcomed to Ilvermorny and then sorted into their respective houses, followed by the opening feast, a performance of the Ilvermorny Round Dance by the Native American Culture Club, followed by a few words from Professor Fontaine. Later that night, the first years are brought to the Thirteenth Tower for initiation.