The Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean in the world, is one of the natural habitats of the sea serpent (FB).

Though the Hogwarts Express always travels out of King's Cross Station in London, Paddington Station - another major rail hub for the city - is also mentioned once in the books: on Harry's eleventh birthday, after touring Diagon Alley, Hagrid took Harry here so he could catch a train back to Little Whinging. Before Harry's train departed, the two ate at a hamburger restaurant in the station (PS5).

Found in the southwestern region of England, Painswick is a small, historic English village. A crowd of 300 gathered here in 1836, though, to watch Xavier Rastrick tap-dance - a performance made famous when he vanished in the middle of it and was never seen or heard from again (fw).

Sandwiched along the Indian Ocean between Iran, Afghanistan, and India, Pakistan is a densely populated, largely Muslim country with both mountains and hundreds of miles of coastline. It is one of several countries in this region of the world that prefer flying carpets to brooms, and so where Quidditch is less popular than in the rest of the wizarding world (QA8).

A witch in Paisley wrote to Harry shortly after his interview with The Quibbler, announcing Voldemort's return - in fact, this long letter was the first one Harry received that said its author believed him (OP26). With about 70,000 residents, Paisley is one of the largest towns in Scotland, located just southwest of Glasgow.

Located in the village near the Burrow (presumably Ottery St. Catchpole), the paper shop is a Muggle shop that Fred and George enjoy visiting, because there's a pretty Muggle girl who works there who enjoys Fred's card tricks (HBP16).

Papua New Guinea, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean just north of Australia, is one of many places home to the Lethifold. We know this thanks to a rare written account from a Lethifold victim, Flavius Belby, who was attacked by one while on holiday in Papua New Guinea in 1782 (FB).

Despite being one of the largest and most famous cities in the world, Paris is rarely mentioned as a part of the wizarding world, though presumably it is as significant for French wizards as London is for their British counterparts. We do know, however, that Gladrags Wizardwear has a location in Paris (along with London and Hogsmeade) (GF8).

The real-life Nicolas Flamel also lived in Paris - and in an early, handwritten version of PS, Rowling mentioned that Flamel was spotted at the opera in Paris in 1762 - though this line never made it into the final book (JKR).

Home to the Patonga Proudsticks, a Quidditch team on the rise in world competition (QA8), Patonga (or Patongo) is a small town in Uganda.

A small town in southeastern Scotland, Peebles was one of the places Harry and Ron flew over in the Ford Anglia on their way to Hogwarts. We know this because Angus Fleet, a Muggle who lived in Peebles, was reported in the Daily Prophet as having spotted the car (CS5).

Peru is the most Quidditch-crazed country in South America, and even has an internationally acclaimed team in Tarapoto, though its national team was flattened by that of Ireland in the World Cup semifinals in 1994 (GF5).

Peru is also the natural habitat of the Peruvian Vipertooth dragon (FB), and the country from which Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes imports Instant Darkness Powder (HBP6).

A hidden platform in King's Cross Station in London and home of the Hogwarts Express (more...)

There is a playground in Little Whinging, where Dudley and his friends like to break the swings and where Harry spent a lot of time sitting and thinking the summer after he watched Voldemort's return and the murder of Cedric Diggory (OP1). There is also a playground near Spinner's End, or at least there was in the mid-1960s, when Lily and Petunia Evans played on the swings, with Lily soaring high into the air as she jumped off, and Severus Snape watched in the background (DH33).

A large country just east of Germany in Europe, Poland was the home of Josef Wronski, the most famous Seeker in Quidditch history. His local team was also based out of Poland, in the town of Grodzisk (QA8).

Though located in Great Hangleton, this 'dark and dingy' police station also serves Little Hangleton, and was the place Frank Bryce was taken for questioning after the Riddles were found dead. Frank was later released, of course, when the coroner could find no cause of death for the family members (GF1).

Portree is a small harbor town on the Isle of Skye, one of the Inner Hebrides islands off the northwest coast of Scotland. It is also the home of the Pride of Portree, a member of the British and Irish Quidditch League (QA7).

A fairly large city and naval port town on England's southern coast, Portsmouth was also the home of Elias Grimstone, who in 1879 made the first Oakshaft 79 broomstick (QA9).

A small country in southwest Europe bordered only by Spain, Portugal is home to the Portuguese Long-Snout dragon. Though not mentioned in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a sketch of the Portuguese Long-Snout can be found in the pages of Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit, the pages of which are sketched in a hidden page on Rowling's website. Drawn along with the Catalonian Fireball, the Long-Snout brings the total number of known dragon species to twelve.

We have run into a number of post offices, both wizarding and Muggle:

• A Muggle post office on the town square in Godric's Hollow, that is darkened when Harry and Hermione walk by on Christmas Eve, 1997 (DH16)


• A wizarding post office in Hogsmeade, also referred to as an owl office (more...)


• A Muggle post office in Ottery St. Catchpole, where Molly Weasley once bravely used the telephone to order taxis, so her family could get to Kings Cross Station (GF11), and where Ron probably placed his call to Harry that was, er, slightly less successful (PA1).

Now known as the London Telecom Tower, the post office tower is a somewhat bizarre-looking structure in London that Harry and Ron once flew over in the flying Ford Anglia (CS5). They were spotted by passing Muggles, according to the report later published in the Evening Prophet. [Photo courtesy www.artofthestate.co.uk]

Found in Godric's Hollow and once home to James, Lily, and Harry Potter, this cottage was destroyed in 1981 when Voldemort, after killing James and Lily, attempted to kill Harry as well and his Killing Curse rebounded, destroying his body and blasting off the corner of the building. Today the building still stands in the same condition, as a monument to Harry's triumph over Voldemort (DH17).

We know of at least two wizarding prisons: Azkaban, where the Ministry of Magic keeps its outlaws, and Nurmengard, which was built by Gellert Grindelwald to hold his enemies during his rise to power.

Though its location is unknown, this private hospital is where the Dursleys took Dudley to have his tail removed. We do know that the hospital was in London, because this was the excuse Vernon gave for being willing to take Harry to King's Cross Station to begin his first year at Hogwarts (PS6).

"...full of large, square houses with perfectly manicured lawns, all owned by large, square owners who drove very clean cars..." (OP1).

A street in Little Whinging, Privet Drive is a "perfectly ordinary" Muggle street with boring, boxy houses. It is also, at number four home to the Dursley family, as well as - for many years, at least - Harry Potter (PS2). Their neighbors at number seven are also briefly mentioned (OP1).

We know of a number of pubs in the wizarding world:

• The Green Dragon
• The Hanged Man, a Muggle pub in Little Hangleton
• The Hog's Head, in Hogsmeade
• The Diagon Alley
• The Hogsmeade
• A Muggle pub near the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic (OP7)
• A pub in Minsk, where Hagrid once ran into some trouble with a vampire (OP20)
• A pub outside of which the Knight Bus stops to drop off Madam Marsh (OP24)
• A Muggle pub on Tottenham Court Road, which Harry, Ron, and Hermione pass after Apparating away from Bill and Fleur's wedding (DH9)
• A Muggle pub in Godric's Hollow, which fills with merry Muggles on Christmas eve after the church service lets out (DH17)

The Great Fire of London in 1666 started on this street, though there is some debate whether it began in a bakery or the basement of a neighboring house, where legend holds a young dragon was being kept (JKR).

The Puddlemere United, Dumbledore's favorite Quidditch team, calls this town home (QA7). Curiously, there is no town named Puddlemere in Muggle Britain, although there is Puddletown. On the theory that "United" might mean there was a pair of similarly-named towns, SVA even looked for Big/Great & Little, East & West, North & South, Upper & Lower, and Inner & Outer. Nada. Pateley Moor in North Yorkshire was the next closest match.

None of the other teams in the British and Irish Quidditch League are in the southeast; no Hastings, or Ramsgate, or Ipswich . . . maybe Puddlemere is the southeastern team. (Maybe it's a regional coalition. What are the county names or nicknames? I also thought of the Lake District, in the NW. - SVA)

Though no location is given, Pumpkins R Us is mentioned in one of Rowling's Daily Prophet newsletters - in an article on Ministry laws cracking down on Hallowe'en celebrations, Dagbert Pips, the proprietor of Pumpkins R Us, was interviewed. Since the interview was in the Daily Prophet, the store is almost certainly in Britain and likely in Diagon Alley, though we have no way of knowing for sure.

An old abandoned department store in Muggle London, Purge and Dowse, Ltd. is actually a false front that prevents Muggles from seeing St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries (OP22). As with many of the places in London, its exact location is unknown, though we have a pretty good guess.

The famous pyramids in Egypt were protected largely by spells cast by ancient wizards - the Weasley family toured some of them when they visited the country in the summer of 1994, where they saw, among other things, mutant skeletons of Muggles who had broken in and "grown extra heads and stuff," according to Ron (PA1). Fred and George also tried to shut Percy in a pyramid, but unfortunately for them were spotted by Mrs. Weasley (PA4).