Hogwarts castle (and plumbing)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 84826

> Steve Vander Ark wrote:
> > On the other hand, there weren't castles of any kind a thousand 
> > years ago either. Rowling can do whatever she wants with her world.
> > 

Geoff wrote: 
> On a point of information, both Windsor Castle and the Tower of 
> London were built during the reign of William I (1066-87) which makes 
> them perilously near being a thousand years old......
> OK, they been added to since, but so probably has Hogwarts.


Warning to the squeamish: This post contains references to toilets and
plumbing. Please skip it if you find the topic distasteful.

If I'm correct, the castles Geoff mentions were originally Norman
keeps, built in a very different style from what we usually think of
as a medieval castle (the "fairytale" castles of Germany, for
example). Certainly plate armor like the armor in the Hogwarts
hallways had not been invented a thousand years ago. (The Normans and
their contemporaries wore chain mail.) So my theory is that Hogwarts
is magically modernized every few centuries. It's now (roughly) a
fifteenth-century castle with early twentieth-century plumbing. There
were no flush toilets in the days of Salazar Slytherin, which makes me
wonder about the passage from the girls' restroom (I'm American,
sorry!) to the Chamber of Secrets. . . Also some of the portraits and
other decorations seem to date from the 18th century or thereabouts
and Sir Cadogan seems to be wearing plate armor, so I'd date him as
fifteenth century. In other words, Hogwarts looks like a late medieval
castle on the outside, which means that the exterior hasn't been
modernized for about 500 years, but the interior has been magically
updated a bit more frequently, possibly to meet the needs of
muggle-borns who are used to living in the RW. (Dumbledore mentions
that a certain room once provided him with a large number of chamber
pots, but I'm sure that it would have turned into a relatively modern
restroom with flush toilets for Harry or Hermione in similar
circumstances.) The prefects' bathroom has hot and cold running water
(as well as magical bubbles)--not a luxury provided by medieval
castles even in the 15th century, much less the eleventh.

Carol, who is trying not to think about Moaning Myrtle being flushed
down to the lake with the sewage, or the resulting pollution of the lake