It’s Time to Go Back to Hogwarts! Here’s Every Return Ranked

By shannonotoole on Sep 1, 2022

Returning to school can elicit mixed emotions from most Muggle students. Despite having magical abilities, the experiences of witches and wizards attending Hogwarts beginning September 1 every year can also be varied.

Fans of the Harry Potter movies have seen six arrivals at Hogwarts, ranging from stressful to iconic and everywhere in between. In honor of September 1, here is our ranked list of Harry’s journeys to Hogwarts!

6. Broken Nose on the Hogwarts Express (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

Harry’s final on-screen return to school is arguably his worst one. In The Half-Blood Prince, Harry’s suspicions about Draco Malfoy hit an all-time high leading into their sixth year at Hogwarts. Putting his Invisibility Cloak to use, Harry sneaks into Draco’s car on the Hogwarts Express and hides away amidst the luggage above.

The train pulls into the station in Hogsmeade. Grabbing his things, Draco pretends he’s set to leave the train. He stops in his tracks, draws all the shades, and casts a Full Body-Bind Curse on Harry. Draco pulls the Invisibility Cloak off Harry, breaks his nose, and covers him back up.

Harry is only spared a trip back to London thanks to Luna Lovegood and her Spectrespecs. They enter the Hogwarts grounds together to find tightened security and the mood somber in the wake of Voldemort’s return.

5. The Triwizard Tournament (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

Harry, Ron, and Hermione have an uneventful journey to Hogwarts for their fourth year. This was likely a welcome change of pace after the frightening events at the Quidditch World Cup. The only moment of note aboard the Hogwarts Express that impacts later events is a meaningful glance between Harry and Cho Chang.

When students arrive at Hogwarts and convene in the Great Hall, they are typically greeted with the sorting of new students, a foreboding announcement of some kind, and the introduction of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Upon their arrival this year, the students learn that Hogwarts would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament. Shortly after Dumbledore’s brief explanation of the event, students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute make their dramatic entrances, setting up the tone and events for the rest of the school year.

4. Close Encounter with Dementors (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss Sirius Black’s recent escape from Azkaban as the Hogwarts Express comes to a sudden halt. The lights snuff out and the windows ice over once Dementors begin searching the train. One Dementor takes a special interest in Harry and attacks him. Harry forms an immediate and understandable fear of the wicked creatures. His dread and desire to avoid being a helpless victim of them ever again eventually leads Harry to learn the Patronus Charm to protect himself.

Harry is ultimately saved by Professor Remus Lupin. Lupin wards off the Dementor and offers Harry chocolate to help fight the after effects of a Dementor attack. Harry would come to trust and care for the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor both thanks to his friendship with Harry’s father and his kind, compassionate demeanor.

3. A Sirius Send-Off (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Harry’s previous year of school had ended with trauma from witnessing both the death of Cedric Diggory and Voldemort’s return. With Voldemort at large once again, he is accompanied by the Aurors Mad-Eye Moody and Nymphadora Tonks to Platform 9¾ as his fifth year is set to begin. Despite the risks involved, Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, also makes an appearance in his Animagus form at King’s Cross Station — much to Harry’s delight. The two share a moment before Harry boards the train.

Upon his arrival to the Hogwarts grounds, Harry is surprised to see skeletal horse-like creatures, called thestrals, pulling the carriages. Up until that point, it had seemed that the carriages were enchanted to pull themselves. A confused Harry is reassured by Luna Lovegood that she can see them too. She later tells Harry that they both can see the mysterious creatures because they had both had the misfortune of seeing someone die. The thestrals would later come in handy as a form of transportation on multiple occasions.

2. The Whomping Willow (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

Harry and Ron’s arrival to their second year of Hogwarts was as iconic as it was stressful for the two boys. When Dobby seals Platform 9¾, preventing the Gryffindors from boarding the train, Ron realizes that they can take the Ford Anglia his father had enchanted to fly. The journey is not without its mishaps and misfortunes, including being seen by Muggles, Harry falling out, and nearly colliding with the Hogwarts Express.

They miraculously make it to the Hogwarts grounds relatively unscathed only to crash land in the Whomping Willow. They narrowly escape with their lives and limbs intact. Ron’s wand breaks and the car takes a beating before escaping into the Forbidden Forest.

Snape attempts to have the boys expelled for their actions, but McGonagall has a fondness for the boys and chooses to give them detention instead. As it turns out, both the rogue Ford Anglia and the broken wand end up saving Harry and Ron before the year is over.

1. First Arrival at Hogwarts (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)

No arrival at Hogwarts is more memorable or iconic than the one that takes place during Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s first year. Harry meets the Weasleys for the first time as Molly Weasley helps him through Platform 9¾. He goes on to meet his eventual best friends Hermione and Ron on the train. When they arrive, Harry is delighted to see Hagrid when he disembarks from the train.

According to tradition, the first-year students cross the lake to the castle in boats lit only by lantern light so they can be sorted into houses. Before even entering the hall, Harry meets Professor McGonagall, Draco Malfoy, and Neville Longbottom, all of whom would come to have important roles in Harry’s life.

Upon entering the Great Hall, Harry is sorted into Gryffindor, as are Ron and Hermione. Few subsequent moments in the entire movie series come close to capturing the magic and sheer wonder of the arrival at Hogwarts that first year.

Fans of the Harry Potter movies witnessed Harry, Ron, and Hermione returning to Hogwarts for classes to begin on six different occasions. Some returns were more eventful and memorable than others, and each managed to set the tone for the school year that followed.

What was your favorite arrival year at Hogwarts? Keep the conversation going with other Harry Potter fans over at side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!