-New Zealand – Mantigi School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-

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The words for Mantigi mean ‘Follow the River of Dreams’, and the horse emblem symbolizes duty 

Mantigi School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is located Tararua Range in North New Zealand, serving as a school for all young witches and wizards of the two islands.  It is another young school, opening to students in 1898 when British wizarding politicians of the country were urged to create it because of New Zealand witches and wizards having to travel to America and Australia to receive an education. The school was not opened to Maoris at first but was later on in the 1930s. However, it has never been popular with the tribes and today few tribal witches and wizards attend the institution. The school is famous for its array of daring sports that involves the students, such as bungee jumping, cross-country running and rock-climbing. The current head of school is a Mr Bertram Hunter, a British wizard who fell in love with New Zealand and his job in 1979 and has been running the school since then.

Founding:

Mantigi School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded in 1894 by the New Zealand ministry of Magic and Minnie Taylor, a ministry witch who drove her idea to the office and was behind the project all through the planning and opening, later teaching there and taking the role of deputy head. Taylor was enthralled that Muggle women had received the right to vote in New Zealand, even before they had in Britain, and received new hope before campaigning to start the school and getting ministry officials of education behind her. The minister soon conceded and building work began in 1894 after the purchase of a valley from muggles and the house was raised. Four years later the school opened 1898 and students came flooding in.

Only one of the founders, and surely the most important, Miss Taylor, haunts the school, a cheery figure who still teaches her class of potions. After dying of a sudden stroke in 1937, Taylor explained, as a ghost, that she felt she had not had a fair amount of time to watch ‘her’ school progress through the years. She retired to haunt the halls in the 1990s after struggles with the ministry of teaching policies tired her, but is always there for students as a Liaison and listens to everyone who needs an ear when they’re upset.

Further History:

Mantigi keeps out of most muggles problems and is generally a quiet school, kept in line by the New Zealand Ministry of Magic, its co-founders. Mantigi has produced some notable students, among these being Edmund Hillary, one of the first men to climb to the peak of Mount Everest. Hillary attended the school for six school years but dropped out before his N.E.W.Ts to persue his mountaineering dreams. In 1953, he proved the school proud and was the first to hike to the very top of Mount Everest. Hillary apparently did not use magic along the way, and all believed him, as he was said to have been hopeless at magic at school. Later on in 1985, Hillary donated 3000 Galleons to the school to start hiking trips around the beautiful mountains that surround the school.

The head of school from Matigi’s founding was Christopher May, May running the school for an impressive thirty years before passing it on to retire. It has been through several headmasters and mistresses since, but faced struggles in the 1990s due to the ministry interfering with teaching and forbidding teachers to address Lord Voldemort with negative views, worrying they would be targeted. Later on in the nineties, it was discovered that a wizard inside the school was a supporter of He-who-must-not-be-named, and the school had to be scoured frequently be the ministry of magic, deterring and exhausting teachers and staff alike. As you may guess, Mantigi did not participate in either wizarding wars, as, though eager to help British cousins, they were not permitted to by their Ministry of Magic.

Education:

Unlike at Hogwarts and other main wizarding schools, Mantigi students are not sorted into houses, but they do follow the same syllabus, taking the same core classes and electives. They start school at eleven and end by taking NE.W.T.s in their seventh year. However, students of Mantigi take O.W.L.s in their sixth year instead of their fifth.

Muggle adventure sports such as mountaineering and heavy hiking, bungee jumping and cross-country are available as a side addition for Mantigi students, as is Quidditch.

Setting:

Mantigi School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is located in the Tararua Range, a mountainous region on the North Island. It is, like all schools, unplottable and students arrive via small river ferries. The climate there is said to be fairy warm but sometimes snowy on the tops.

The grounds of Mantigi are said to be vast and impressive, with a woodland, forest running track, magical beat compound, stables, greenhouses and more. The students love the wildlife there especially some of the British witches and wizards that attend. However, the students are not permitted to swim in the river upon which the ferries run, as it is extremely fast flowing and dangerous.

The school itself is a classic 19^th century building, mimicking the black and white Tudor beam style and dark glass and windows. Inside the school is said to be furnish lavishly and built in the Tudor style, with many secret rooms containing trick diaries that give false history and fake jewels to magically entice a greedy wanderer.

The great hall, styled similar to the one at Hogwarts, is a large room with a sky enchanted to be glowing brightly and dimly by turns, depending on the atmosphere of the room. For this reasons sometimes and sometimes not candles and needed. However, students say it is usually bright due to a healthy atmosphere at the school.

There are many old-fashioned portraits in the halls, most only from the eighteenth century but all rather gossipy. Tapestries also hang, though the figures in these do not speak and only move very slowly. Ornaments ad furniture are also Tudor themed, making the school seem older than it is, and the floors are of soft wood that is lavishly carpeted in places.

In the matter of ghosts, the most famous is the weeping Willow, a girl who claims that she was a runaway coming to the school and, as a witch, stumbled across it after hours of traveling and wandering the hills in hopelessness. However, she was on the other side of the river, and, in her eagerness to get to the school, attempted to swim the river. Unfortunately she was carried down stream by the strong current and was killed, not by drowning but when she hit her head on the underwater trunk of a weeping willow. Also claiming that Willow is her Christian name, Weeping Willow haunts down by the river and in the school, though she is always silent and brooding when in the building, regretting that she never was able to reach her destination alive.