The Wizarding World Geocache Series
"Upon the signature of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, wizards went into hiding for good. It was natural, perhaps, that they formed their own small communities within a community."
— The secrecy surrounding the wizarding world
The Wizarding World, also referred to as the magical community, is the society in which wizards and witches live and interact, separate from non-wizarding society. The two communities are kept separate through the use of charms, spells, and secrecy. Wizards and witches are forbidden to reveal anything about magic to Muggle society due to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, but that does not mean that the two worlds live entirely apart.
Welcome to Englad
"The quiet square looked as though it had been untouched by time... All looked peaceful in the falling snow, a place where, to the uninitiated eye, nothing of note ever happened."
- A description of Godric's Hollow
Godric's Hollow is a small village in the West Country of England and is one of the places where magical families have come to live alongside Muggles. Over the centuries, it has been home to many wizards and witches of note, including Godric Gryffindor, who was born there, and Bowman Wright, who forged the first Golden Snitch there in the Middle Ages. Others who called the village home were the Dumbledore family, the family of James and Lily Potter, and Bathilda Bagshot, author of A History of Magic.
Godric's Hollow has a narrow road and look-a-like cottages that resided on either side of it. Streetlights at the center of the village indicate its square where stands a war memorial which, upon closer inspection by wizards, transforms into a statue of James, Lily, and young Harry Potter – a monument to their final stand. At the end of Church Lane is St. Jerome's Church, and behind it, the village's graveyard.
According to A History of Magic, the graveyard is rumored to be haunted. The graveyard is described as having row upon row of tombstones, some very old. The headstones show members of different wizarding families that have been buried there, such as an Antioch and Ignotus Peverell, two of the three brothers mentioned in The Tale of the Three Brothers in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and original owners of the Deathly Hallows.
Though a Muggle village, Godric’s Hollow has a storied wizarding history. For over a thousand years it has been home to notable wizards and witches, and has been most famous as the birthplace of Hogwarts founder Godric Gryffindor.
And while famous for being Gryffindor’s origin, the town sealed its place in wizarding history on October 31, 1981, in the midst of an open war on the wizarding world, when He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (Voldemort) killed Lily and James Potter and attempted to kill Harry, inadvertently destroying himself instead.