Between fighting off Dementors and unsealing the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), did, in fact, attend class. It’s a good thing too, as the spells and lessons learned in their courses may have contributed to toppling Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his followers once and for all.
As Hagrid once said, Hogwarts is the “finest school of witchcraft and wizadry in the world.” From the contested lessons in Defense Against The Dark Arts to learning how to heal with Herbology, which subjects benefit these young wizards and witches the most, throughout the Harry Potter movies and beyond the walls of Hogwarts?
7. Muggle Studies
The Wizarding World may be a tale of fiction for Muggles, but for many students, their ties to the non-magic world are ever-present. Hermione is Muggle-born - which served as a point of contention amongst some of her peers - and Harry was raised in a household where the Wizarding World was never spoken about.
No Muggle will learn about killing spells or how to create potions, but if a young wizard ventures into a world where they cannot use their wands, he or she would need to know the basics of how to exist there. That’s why Muggle Studies offers courses in radio, toasters, rubber ducks, and transportation (not everyone can get around in flying cars, after all). Though useful in theory, who would ever want to leave the exciting world of magic?
6. Apparition
Around the world, teenagers turning 15, 16, or 17 will undergo driver’s ed and take a test that allows them to drive on their own. In the Wizarding World, the equivalence of this is an Apparition test. The optional three-month course teaches students of age to teleport from one location to the next, learning the “Three D’s of Apparition” along the way.
Like driving, the ability to apparate requires maturity, precision, and skill. Once graduation comes around, the students cannot rely on the Hogwarts Express for transportation anymore. They must - as the coming-of-age tale relays - learn to navigate the world on their own terms.
5. Care of Magical Creatures
From Whomping Willows to three-headed dogs, the Wizarding World has no shortage of magical creatures. It may leave you wondering, who cares for these creatures? In the Muggle world, there are organizations like the National Wildlife Federation or groups that advocate for the rights of animals. However, at Hogwarts, this was taught in Care of Magical Creatures (or Creature Care).
During Harry and his peers’ time at Hogwarts, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) held lessons in the Forbidden Forest, introducing them to creatures like Aragog and Thestrals. For those on track to become Magizoologists - like Fantastic Beasts’ Newt Scamandar (Eddie Redmayne) almost a century earlier - this course laid the foundation for a career in the study of magical creatures. Hermione, too, must have found the lessons useful, as she would eventually work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as an adult.
4. Potions
Snape (Alan Rickman) first introduced students to potions class by saying, “As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic.” That may be true, but with cauldrons and textbooks in hand, the students learn how to concoct things like the Polyjuice Potion, Amortentia, and common antidotes that all prove useful during their time at Hogwarts in one way or another.
If Snape actually had any interest in teaching the subject, Potions class may have been more exciting for the students (though if his annotated copy of Advanced Potion-Making proved anything, it’s that there was once a passion for the craft). Nevertheless, Potions teaches young wizards and witches crucial skills that simply can’t be learned in a Muggle’s chemistry class.
3. Herbology
The Muggle equivalent to botany, students learn to care for and cultivate magical plants and other fungi. Throughout their years at Hogwarts, Herbology exposed students to organisms like shrieking Mandrakes.
For Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), Herbology is a class that he can excel in without much need for a wand. Perhaps that’s why Neville eventually returns to Hogwarts and takes over the role as professor of Herbology. Not only is this a useful course for him, but Mandrakes proved to be essential throughout the series when unpetrifying the victims of the Chamber of Secrets and healing those wounded at the Battle of Hogwarts.
2. The History of Magic
Similar to a Muggle’s education, students at Hogwarts need to learn about their past to better understand current events. As a core subject for Harry and his friends, The History of Magic teaches about everything wars, rebellions, politics, and more.
Yes, the subject might be boring at times but is required to complete the O.W.L. exam. There’s so much history to learn about the Wizarding World, from the first wand shop in 382 B.C. to the rise of Grindelwald and beyond. Harry, Ron, and Hermione also indulged in their own history of magic on multiple occasions - reading up on Nicholas Flamel and the Resurrection Stone, for one - which became crucial in defeating Voldemort.
1. Defense Against The Dark Arts
Many professors idolized the position of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, but few lasted longer than a school year. However, during the term, lessons correlated to whatever Harry and his peers were facing at the time.
Barty Crouch Jr. taught the students about curses as he himself recovered from the Imperius Curse. When the Chamber of Secrets reopened, the students learned how to duel and use their wands for battle. Similarly, Lupin (David Thewlis) - a werewolf - spent lessons on Boggarts and taught about the many dark creatures of the Wizarding World. With no set syllabus or stable curriculum, the students learned what was useful at the time. Talk about real-world experience in the classroom.